Sister Manson -Silly Me In Philly-: 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!