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 

"either 12"

Hahahah oh this week...I don't even know what happened.

Let's just say I am really happy today is PDay.
Remember when we were little and we went to the body world place??
Where this science place had a bunch of dead bodies to look at and see
as art? Well they have something similar here in philly that were
doing to today! EXCEPT ITS WITH ANIMALS! Stay tuned for pics next
week:)
I pray there's a giraffe there.


The week started out great though! Haha and then we just crashed and
burned hecka bad.

We have been teaching sister change temple prep and helping her be
ready for January 31!

Out investigators joel and tatyana accepted a baptism date! In
February and April! So that's amazing.

Sister menlove sent me the best talk in the whole wide world that
changed my life.
Everyone go read "the atonement:all for all" by elder Bruce c. hafen

Taught me so much about the atonement and what it means. That's
probably the best thing about my mission...I've learned so much about
the atonement and what it means and how to access it. And really feel
it's REAL power that comes into our lives as we live the gospel of
Jesus Christ, by having faith, repenting and changing, remembering and
renewing our covenants by the sacrament and going to the temple and
continuing to do all of these things to the end!

Had a great district meeting. Really powerful and felt the spirit.
During our Roleplay, I did with sister Bailey, and some other
missionaries. We were to not think about what to say but say what
christ would say to them if he were here. Totally changed my
perspective. I remember looking into each of their eyes and really
feeling and knowing that Jesus Christ knew and loved them personally
and things just came to my mind that I would say, trusting it was what
they needed to hear. Lifechanging. I just freaking love being a
missionary.

Sister Bennett cracks me up everyday but she gets a particular
shoutout right now.
We wanted our investigators to read a Ether 12 in the Book of Mormon,
and she spelt it as EITHER 12!!! Hahahah. We had another lesson with
them to follow up and they were confused and couldn't find either 12
in the Book of Mormon...I laughed so hard. Next time I'll be sure to
check what she writes down for them haha. Good times.

Had a crazy lesson with a wanna-be pologomist who wanted to marry BOTH
me and sister Bennett hahaha.
So many people yelled and flipped me off this week while I was in the
car..it was very rude of them haha these Philadelphians are one of a
kind:)
Saw a cool sign that said: "DRIVE CAREPHILLY"
I died!
Sister Bennett accidentally drove down twice the wrong way in a one
way street...haha we got even more yells and honks. Almost all of our
appointment canceled from like Friday to Sunday. That's always a
bummer when that happens..

And scariest moment of my life!! Are you ready?
We rode the subway home from church and
I get off at our stop and sister Bennett DOES NOT!
So I'm now left alone in the creepy dark subway while she rides off to
the next stop.
First missionary rule they teach you in the MTC: never be alone!
All I can do is just laugh at the situation and I just sit there
trying to decide how the heck we're going to get back together. I said
100 prayers and read some comforting scriptures to keep myself calm
and then the next train pulled up so I got on it and thought to get
off at the next stop thinking sister Bennett would have gotten off and
just waited for me. I get off at the next stop and she's not there!
Ahh by this time I've majorly freaking out, but knew Heavenly Father
would help me. I crossed over and got to the other side of the subway
to go back up to our original stop to see if she went back to get me
instead. I got there and didn't see her. I had the thought to just get
up and out of the subway on the street and look at the phone (our
phone doesn't get signal in the subway) so I did that and I had a
missed call from an unknown number. I immediately called and it was
sister Bennett on the other side! Told each other where we were and we
were reunited.
I HAVE BEVER BEEN MORE HAPPY IN MY LIFE TO SEE HER.

Good news we were both safe and reunited.
Lesson learned. So grateful for companions.
I don't think I'll be able to handle being alone for a while when I go home!
So sorry not sorry if I cling to some of y'all :)
I of course immediately thought of 100 gospel parables that can be
related to this story. I'll leave it to you to think of them:) and
learn from my experience.


I have good goals set up before the end of my mission.
To read the Book of Mormon over again and read the New Testament. I
just want to learn and study everything I can about Jesus Christ.
Studying more deep charity also.

I honestly have never been happier in my whole life. Being out here as
a literal representative of Christ. Bad days or even whole weeks
come..but I still have such a deep amount of joy it doesn't even phase
me.

Twentyfifteen

HAPPY 2015!!

I loved 2014 so much...first of all because I was a missionary for
that entire year!
Whenever I look back on my little life at 2014, it'll be mission memories.

Me and sister Bennett are waiting right now to get my haircut(: we're
in a really ghetto part of the city...but our investigator is cutting
my hair, so it's worth it.

So many miracles happened this week. I honestly am so in love with
being a missionary.

New Year's Eve is crazy here in the city, but we were in and safe in
our apartments sleeping at 1030(: we volunteer at this place called
"The Watermark" right by the temple. It's a retirement place and
everyone there loves us. We helped them run their party for the
residents. It was adorable. Try and imagine this: old people dressed
to their best, a guy play music on an accordion, 100 walkers, a
handful few who are able to dance, dancing carefully in the middle.
People shouting across the tables because they can't hear that well
and then me and sister Bennett with our tacky missionary skirt attire
in the middle of it all. Haha definitely a new year I will never
forget. They all soften my heart.

We miraculously ran into a member of the church! We were walking late
one cold night on a street we neeeeever go on and as we were walking
we heard this guy walking the other way say "hello sisters" and kept
walking. And we were WHOA! Hoooold on wait a minute sir. So we quickly
turned around and chased him down and we were like do we know you? And
he said he knows us, but we don't know him. He is from Albania & a
return missionary, BYU graduate living here in Philly. I know we were
meant to find him! Because he's totally inactive and doesn't even
believe in God anymore which broke our hearts hearing. He actually
stopped and spoke to us for almost a whole hour. There were many times
in the conversation where he felt the spirit as we talked to him about
"holding fast to the iron rod" (see 1 Nephi 8) in Lehi's tree of life
vision. We asked him when we "let go of the rod" (meaning like when
did he stop reading the scriptures)
He said YEARS ago, and we were like duh of course that's why you
strayed, your lost in the mist of darkness confused when you should
have been holding to the rod. We bore our testimony 100 times and
still he had no desire. But I know we did everything we could and he
will be telling this story 10 years from now at sacrament when he's
called to be a bishop.
I love how the gospel can truly change us as we apply it.

I had such a powerful experience at zone training. And I think I
realized why I absolutely love being a missionary.
Our purpose is to: Invite others to come unto Christ by helping them
receive the restored gospel through faith in Jesus Christ and His
Atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost,
and enduring to the end.
Something that clicked about halfway through my mission was that our
purpose IS the doctrine/gospel of Jesus Christ "faith, repentance,
baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the
end" (see forth article of faith and 2 Nephi 31)
So my mission has really taught me the gospel of Jesus Christ and the
gospel of Jesus Christ is HOW we access the Atonement. That's what
clicked on Thursday for me. And that's why I love my mission because
it's literally helping me apply and use the atonement every single
day.
People always talk about the atonement and it's always been a hard
concept for me to wrap my brain around, never really been sure of how
to use it or apply it, but the gospel especially faith, repentance,
renewing our promises we made at baptism from the sacrament for
already members of the church and especially baptism and Holy Ghost
for nonmembers = atonement.

Remember Tatyana? I have been talking about her In a couple of my
emails..but I had the random thought to stop by her one day, it was
alittle out of the way but we did it anyways. Best choice ever.
(Always follow those promptings from the Spirit)
Her friend Terrance was there!! Let me try to describe to you the best
way I can who Terrance is.
Well first off he is gay. Like super super gay. He is black and loves
fashion (he tells me all the time how my outfit never matches my bag
hahah) he's a senior in high school, he's pretty skinny and tall. But
he's super in love with himself and he makes that very clear how good
he looks. Andddddd I want to be his best friend!
He has such a special place in my heart because of how much he LOVES
the gospel, we've seen him 3x this week, we taught him the restoration
and gave him a Book of Mormon, taught half of the plan of salvation
and he is getting baptized February 1!!!! He has been very open about
him being gay and we have been very open about how the churches and
heavenly fathers view on homosexuality. He knows the Book of Mormon is
true! And has thought a lot about it being gay, and knows that
Heavenly Father can change our desires and soften our heart. Every
time we go over there he is just so full of the spirit and soaks it
all up. Good things are happening!!

The church is true:)
Also..I went on exchange with my favorite sister ever--->SISTER COST.
She joined the church only 2 years ago. And ohh if you could hear her
story and see who she was before and after joining the church. She is
incredible. We had some really spiritual moments together just talking
about our missions and how much the gospel and the church means to us.
We get a weekly letter from our mission president every week and this
week was good, it kept saying the phrase "your highest self"
So that's my main goal, to become my highest self! By doing small and
simples things because I know that's how great things come. Alma 6:36

What are your goals for this year?
Email or write them to me!

christy.manson@myldsmail.net

1715 spring garden st. Apt F2
Philadelphia, PA 19130

Love Sister Manson😇