Tuesday, September 17, 2013

It's beginning to feel a lot like Fall!

Hi everybody!

One of the best things about this week is that, from the looks of it,  fall is setting in. I finally got to wear my raincoat this weekend. Normal people should not be excited about this, but I've never had to own one before, and I absolutely love the rain, so there you have it. Everyone says Iowa falls are so gorgeous, and I am very excited to see what's in store.

Well, I don't have too much to report about the Armstrongs, other than that Shannon loves us. We didn't get to have an actual lesson with them this week, but we did stop by a couple times to just visit with shannon and share a scripture. Both of those were great. She is always happy to see us, and chats our ears off, asks questions, and so forth. It is helpful, because she ends up telling us about her concerns often times, and that makes it easier to teach what she needs to hear. She and Aaron are both slacking on their "homework" as they call it. Pray that they will continue to read the Book of Mormon.

Greta is - well, Greta. She is doing good, but has a generally chaotic life. She is working very hard on the hill that we pulled all the weeds out of, and between that and trying to open up a "pure bible study" here in Dubuque, she doesn't have much down time. We were able to drop by and talk to her while she gardened, and share a scripture. Then yesterday, we finally had an actual lesson. We had a member meet us there (we try to get a member at every lesson we teach- it helps so much) and we talked about the gospel of Christ. It went well, but as expected with Greta, she has a lot to say and plenty of questions raised by things she hears from friends. She is honestly seeking to understand what we believe, but is sort of resistant to anything we teach besides what is in the bible. Pray for her heart to be softened, and that she will read and pray about the Book of Mormon. She has yet to pray about it, but it is so important that she does!

We gained an investigator this week, the elders had been teaching her, but she lives in our area, so they handed her over to us! Her name is Clarea, she is a big, loud, hilarious, sweet, 51-year-old black lady. She lives in the ghetto of dubuque. (Not even kidding.) She really wants to learn, and get baptized. All we have to do is get her to church and help her quit smoking, and she'll be ready! We are very excited to be teaching her. She has such an honest, humble desire to follow Christ, and she actually WANTS to, which is not like our other investigators. We have great faith that she will progress!

Most exciting thing that happened this week, we spent pretty much all of Thursday in Iowa City for a mission tour! Elder Robert C. Gay of the 1st Quorum of the Seventy was here. They split our mission down the middle, one half came to hear him one day, and the other half the next day. It was fantastic! It was such a huge blessing to sit at the feet of an apostle, and hear what he had to teach us specifically. We learned a ton, and he was very interactive. He didn't just stand up and talk, he got us involved form the very beginning, and taught what we needed to hear. The things he hit hardest were the converting power of the Book of Mormon, and member involvement. Both are so crucial if we are to have any success in bringing souls to Christ. I cannot possibly nutshell all that he shared, but it was wonderful. We got to shake his hand, and also heard from President and Sister Jensen. I am so grateful and blessed to be here. This is by no means easy, but by all means the greatest thing I've ever done.

I love you all so much. Thank you for all the love and support!
-Sister Monroe
 Hooray for mail! This is an awesome package I got from Jen this week. Thank you, sweet cousin!
 Some of our members picked us up, stopped by subway, and we ate dinner up at eagle point park, overlooking the Mississippi river. I love it!
Eagle point park is all limestone architecture, I loved this little tunnel!

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