JOY!

So many good things have happened this week.

First of all I got transferred to my new area Tuesday. Haha.....YOU'LL NEVER GUESS where they sent me

CENTER CITY PHILADELPHIA! I get to see the philly temple being built every single day :)

Here's my new address:

1715 spring garden apt 2F
Philadelphia, pa 19103

It's been such a JOY being here.

My new companion is sister Bennett. She's a combination of mine and sister steadmans personality, sooooooo you know we're just having a great time everyday. I laugh extremely hard everyday.

So as a sister training leader (STL) I go on exchanges with the sisters that we are over/with.

And I am so lucky because I have some of my favorite sisters :)

SISTER COX & SISTER BAILEY!

We are with 6 companionships. So 12 total sisters.

It's getting cold here and has been pouring rain. But I love it!

I had my most sacred experience on my mission this past week.

So like at the beginning of this week we got a letter from missionaries in Australia!!!

Telling us a member in their ward's daughter lives here in Philadelphia and wanted us to deliver her a letter she wrote to help her know she sent the missionaries to her. The mom and daughter are both from China. The woman's name we met is Yunong Zhou. We knocked on her door and she was so happy to see us because her mom told her she would send us. She welcomed us right In. We shared the story of how we have this letter for her and gave it to her and talked about the temple being built here in Philadelphia. And we taught her how to pray! Can't even describe the spirit that was present the whole time. It was so overwhelming I cried like the whole time. So sister Bennett had to explain to Yunong why I was crying. Sister Bennett said a prayer, then I did to show her how and then she did!! That was her very first prayer.

PHILADELPHIA is where I need to be right here.

My first Sunday in the Ward was great! There was only one speaker because the other one couldn't make it. Sooooo the 1st counselor gets up and says:

"Good thing we just got 3 new missionaries in our Ward. We'll turn the time over to sister Manson to come up and talk to us for alittle bit" hahahaha I was like wait.....what the!? So I go up and introduced myself and just started rambling about the gospel(: I love being a missionary, it's the best.

My heart is so full here. It's incredible being here in philly. I am praying this will be my final and last area before I go home in March. Do not worry about my safety, we are very safe here! Our area is nice, a little sketchy and ghetto........butttttt we're fine and loving it.

Love you!

Sister Manson

Isaiah 55:12 my new favorite scripture with the Philadelphia temple :)  

Tender Mercy

The tender mercy I wanted to share this week is pretty long... #longstorylonger:

Saturday afternoon we met a girl named Tatiana while we were looking
for a LA. We had a really sacred conversation with her, prayed
together, and she committed to coming to church with us the next
morning. We agreed to meet at 8:30am at the RiteAid on Broad and then
ride the subway to the church together. We were so, so excited for her
to feel the love of her Father in Heaven and for her to understand how
divine she really is.
Sunday morning we went early to meet Tatiana, but realized that we
didn't have any idea where the RiteAid is... We walk (sprinted) to her
house to try and catch her there, but when her dad answered he told us
that she had gone to her friends. We somewhat frantically explained
who we were, why we were there, and that we needed directions. He was
really cool and asked us to wait for him to change because he wanted
to see if she was around the corner.
I ran over to the corner to see if i could see her down
the street and said, "Sister Bennett! I'm stressin' out!" After
praying on the sidewalk, her dad came back and said she was still
asleep upstairs and had been up really late that night... As we walked
back towards the subway we were pretty bummed...
We then started inviting every living creature to church. We were
determined to find somebody to come to church with us. We were
desperate! Really, We invited every single human being we saw to come.
Every single one! We stopped and prayed and told Heavenly Father that
we would be inviting everyone we saw and asked Him to place somebody
in our path who was prepared and ready to receive us. Well... at this
point we were going to be late to church and nobody wanted to come
with us. We went down to the subway and decided we would find body in
the train.

(pause/rewind)

The night before we had an intense lesson with Dasse. Long story
short, he had committed to pray and ask God if he needed to come to
church the next morning. We had text him Sunday but hadn't heard back
from him.

(play)

When we walked down into the empty subway terminal guess who we saw...
DASSE! Dasse was sitting on the bench waiting for the train. As soon
as I saw him I was warmed by the spirit. Heavenly
Father had answered our prayers! It turns out that Dasse had gotten
off at the wrong stop and wasn't sure why. We also ran into two LA
members getting on the train to come to church with us. It was a ride
full of tender mercies from the Lord. I know He is aware of Sister
Bennett and I. He loves us so much.

Also....I have been quite good at Parallel parking!!! I've done it
like 6 times:)

And I have ridden the subway!

Ahh I'm learning life skills here :)

{sister.manson}