Goodbye, Cedar Falls! Hello, Davenport!

So...
first things, first! My new address for all you faithful writers is:
4846 Jersey Ridge Road. #7
Davenport, IA 52807

transfers are fun! I am serving in Davenport, one of the "quad cities" here on the river.
I have not one, but two new companions! Sister King, who has been out for about 15 months and Sister Stephens, who has been here, in Iowa, waiting for her visa to Brazil for 11 months. It is a fun adjustment. :)
So far, I like the area. I am excited to get to know it and the people this week- starting with how to use a bus system! We are in a car share, and on the off week, we take the bus everywhere. Should make for some fun conversations. Wish me luck!

I am definitely missing Cedar Falls and my sweet Sister Sumsion, as well as many others. This week I said goodbye to Hannah, Mick, Angie, Julie, Ashley, and SO many members, less actives and investigators. It was tough. Cedar Falls has a piece of my heart!

 Wayne & Angie. Oh, and that cat on the table is butterscotch.

I will miss Angie a lot, we were sad to say goodbyes!

 The Gabels! Sister Gabel is the relief society president, and I absolutely love her.

She is the sweetest lady, and they have the cutest little family.

 This is Sister Benson. She is awesome- she served a mission in French Canada,

and is an English education professor at UNI. She feeds us once a month,

and taught some really great Relief Society lessons.

 This is Marilyn, I paint her nails every week. She has provided a lot of

good laughs and conversation in my Tuesday afternoons. :)

 Wayne being a goon, and Me an Angie laughing at him. I love this picture. :)

 The Tanners. They are fantastic members who feed us once a month.

They are the funniest couple I've ever met. I love them.

 Mick...what it's really like. :)

 acting professional

 Mick! :)

 This is Nichelle. She is one of the four YSAs in our ward. She came to a lot of lessons with us, and was a great help. She served a mission in Seattle, spanish speaking,

and one of her companions was Aubrie Moore, who's in my home ward! So random!

 Elder Schubert, he was really excited about the cupcakes I made. :)

 Surprise Sumsion love. :) <3

 The Willsons, they are so awesome. Sister Willson has been an angel. She does a ton for us.

 Mama Willson. :)

 The Shores minus Brother Shores. They are a wonderful family,

and they feed us about every other week. We love them.

 The Wright's- He is the Ward Mission Leader, and She is

a ward missionary/meal coordinator. We worked a lot with them, and I will miss them a ton.

 Sister Wright and I just love each other. :)

 HANNNAH!!!!!!! Oh, how I LOVE her!

 Best friends for life!

 We get a little silly sometimes. It's my favorite. :)

 aaand again. :)

 Elder Curtis- who went home this transfer, I will miss him, Sumsion, Ashley, and Me.

 I'm really hoping to go to Ashley's baptism. I have loved teaching her. 

 We rode with the Elders to transfers, in a four passenger car.

It wasn't actually this bad, but we did have to stay separate! :)

Elder Shubert de-tagging and de-pocketing Elder Curtis. It was pretty funny.

I am really grateful for the things I learned, and how much I grew in Cedar Falls, not to mention all the people I got to know and love. I am excited to see what Davenport holds. I know I am where I am supposed to be!

Love, Sister Monroe

My life is a gift, my life has a plan...

There are a handful of things I could tell you about that happened this week, but instead, I'll just tell you the thing that meant most, because it changed my life.

Yesterday, just two months after we met her, we went with Hannah to receive her Patriarchal Blessing. She invited us to come in with her, and the blessing itself was absolutely incredible. There is not a hint of doubt anywhere in my soul that our Father in Heaven does not know us perfectly.

On the way back, she told the story of how we met her, from her side of things, which was more miraculous than we knew. As she told it, and told us that she knows that she needed the two of us specifically, it hit me that Father in Heaven is truly in the details of our lives.  Hannah and I will be friends for the rest of our lives, and Heavenly Father knew that we would need to meet each other so that could be possible. He has actively shaped my life, with not too much help from me at some points, so that I would serve a mission in Iowa, starting in July 2013, and be in Cedar Falls at exactly the time I needed to be here. Not only that, but he's done that for each of the people I needed to meet too, my companions and investigators, and many ward members included.
My testimony grew a lot yesterday at this realization. My mission is a miracle, and I know my Father in Heaven wouldn't have me anywhere else right now. I already knew it, but I know it now more than ever. I am so so blessed.

I am SO very on edge about transfer calls (which we will likely be waiting for all day long), but with this burst of testimony, I have the assurance that whatever comes will be His will. I will go where He wants me to go! I love Hannah, I love Sister Sumsion, and I love a whole lot of people in iowa! I know that I am where I am supposed to be, and that I will love people in my next area just as much, whenever I get transferred. (So anxious to find out!!!)

Thank you, each of you who read this, because you are most likely connected to my life in some way, large or small, for being a part of my life. Thank you for helping me get here, it is a miracle.
Love you so much!
-Sister Monroe

I love to see the temple!

So...
We went to the temple on Tuesday!!! It was the most incredible trip. I love the temple so much, and have had many wonderful experiences there, but I have to say that this was the best yet.
The reason we got to go, and one of the things that made it so great, was that Sister Dunigan got to go after a few years of inactivity in the church, in very small part- but directly because of work that I did. I am so blessed, and was thrilled to see her enjoying the blessings of the temple again.
Another reason it was so great, my dear sweet mama Reynolds came from Dubuque to be at the same session as me. It was absolutely wonderful. I was in pure awe and joy, as I realized that this is what the life after this will be like. We will be reunited with people who we loved dearly. It was just the smallest taste for me of what Heavenly Father's plan really has in store for us, because I've only known mama Reynolds for a short time, and been separated form her for only months, but seeing and talking with her again was just an amazing blessing. I love her SO much. She even brought Sister Graham with her, who I also love and missed. Best day ever.
It was also such a great blessing to go to the temple with Sister Sumsion as my companion. I love her a whole lot, and we are so close. It just made the over all experience even better.
I think that the overall feeling that made this one trip- these few hours- so sacred to me was how much love I felt, both from others, and for others.
Sometimes you have to move all the way to Iowa so that Heavenly Father can introduce you to your friends. He is so aware of me, and each of us. I know that this is exactly where I am supposed to be right now, and this was all again confirmed to me on Tuesday. Sister Sumsion and I were filled with pure joy for days. I will treasure that trip to Nauvoo for the rest of my life.

We had Zone Training the next day, and it was really great. Our missionary meetings ALWAYS provide me with the revelation that I need to be a little better, more effective, and more able to teach. I love it.

Hannah is doing incredible. She has come so far, spiritually in the short couple months since we met her. This Sunday, we will accompany her to receive her Patriarchal Blessing. She is so excited, as are we, and last night she sent us the sweetest text thanking us for all that we had done for her, and for being her friends. Again, I feel so blessed. I know that Heavenly Father is working with His children, through me.

Mick, Angie, and Julie are doing well. We love them, and are just trying to help them adjust and stay active.

We have been working with the Elders to "team teach" a woman named Ashley, who lives a couple buildings over in our apartment complex. She is struggling a lot with a busy, overwhelming life, but is so excited to be a part of this gospel. We were able to spend some time with her this week, just helping out around her house and talking with her. She is incredibly strong, and we are excited to see how this gospel will change her life.

A few others we are working with, Ruth, Paige, Summer & her daughter Jayden, Jessica, and Zach. They are all doing good. If you can, please pray that they will progress in the gospel.

Thank you for your prayers and support. I am feeling so loved and watched over, and have seen a lot of tender mercies in my daily life. I know that those come, in part, because if the faith and prayers of my loved ones. Thank you.

We will be celebrating St. Patricks day with a bit of laser tag today... so excited. I love being a missionary! Haha. :)

Love,
Sister Monroe

 We were at Ashley's on "pi day" so naturally, the elders dropped by with some pie. They couldn't come in, so they stood at the door and served it to us, which was pretty funny. Luckily, no one got hurt. Ashley is funny and did not want to be in the picture. Haha.

 Sister Graham and Sister Reynolds. I love them so much.
And I love the temple so much. It was basically just my favorite day ever.

 MAMA REYNOLDS!!!!!

Froyo and a lesson with Hannah! Both so good! :)

Spring is (hopefully) Springing!!!

This week has been SO GOOD.

We had exchanges this week, Sister Hill and Sister Cannon came up from Cedar Rapids, and it was wonderful to have them. Sister Cannon loved our new apartment. :) I worked with sister cannon for the whole exchange. She had worked with Sister Sumsion last exchange, and my last exchange in Dubuque was with Sister Hill.
We saw a lot of miracles, and had a ton of lessons. It was the best exchange of my mission, seriously. Sister Cannon and I had some really good talks about listening to the Spirit. because I've been studying it a lot lately. For the first time on my mission, we stayed up late talking and laughing. I definitely paid the price for a couple days, but it was fun! :)
 I love exchanges.

We taught not one, but TWO new investigators this week! Their names are Paige, who we met when she was our cashier at walmart, and Summer, who we found on our last exchange. They are both such sweet girls. Paige is our age, just living at home, working so she can go to school soon for culinary arts!!! Summer is married, and has two adorable little girls. We taught each of them the restoration, invited them to study the pamphlet and pray about what we taught. Please pray for them!

Our ward had ward conference this week, which was incredible. Our stake president is an absolute powerhouse. The most incredible thing was that during second hour, we had ward council (which we always attend-so cool), and instead of the usual meeting, President Hodgman just had a discussion with us. He is HUGE on families, so that is a focus of basically all of his talks/comments. It is amazing.

Mick is back!!! We had a great lesson with him this week, and he came to church! He has been feeling "disconnected" from church and God as he has been away, and not reading the book of mormon or attending church. That was the focus of our lesson, and we promised him that if he reads, prays, and comes to church, that the Holy Ghost will be present in his life, and he will be able to receive confirmation of all that he has been learning in this gospel.
Hannah was at church too, and is just amazing. Her countenance has changed so much since we met her. I love it.
Julie is also doing well, she hasn't smoked in almost two weeks, and she's been reading the Book of Mormon. She prays a lot, and has wonderful friends in the ward, which has been instrumental in her transition into the church.
Angie missed church again, but she says she misses it a lot and she knows she needs to come. She's just been having a hard time getting there because of work.

I have had some really incredible, personal experiences with the Spirit and revelation this week. In one of them, there was a moment with a member yesterday that gave me a whole new understanding of Christlike love. I was completely filled with charity for this sister, who I have had a hard time completely loving up to this point. In a few short moments, Father in Heaven touched my heart, and I touched hers. That sounds super generic, but I can't explain it any other way, it was incredible.

I am so grateful to be a missionary, in this mission, at this time, in this area, serving with those who I am. He truly knows each of us, better than we do ourselves.

Love you all,
Sister Monroe

Corinne moved back to Orem on a whim job promotion from her boss. It broke our hearts to have her leave, but I'm so glad she was here for this short time. Sometimes two people have to go to IOWA to meet each other so they can be friends forever! :)

Zone Conference, Cold(s), and a BAT in the Chapel!

Obviously, it has been an eventful week here!

Probably the most exciting thing this week was Zone conference in Iowa City. There were 4 zones at ours, and I got to see a lot of people I love! Not to mention, It's where Sister Sumsion was "born," so she was in heaven.
We received a lot of great training. I learned a ton, from those, and from the spirit! It is amazing how much Heavenly Father speaks to us at our meetings.
A tender mercy (one of many) of zone conference, was that I got to drive us to and from Iowa City, about an hour and a half each way. I LOVE road tripping, and I felt so at home behind the wheel on the highway. :)

Cold: Sickness- how I dislike sickness.
My cold has gotten worse, but after the most incredible blessing (as far as Priesthood blessings of comfort or for sickness) of my entire life, I am feeling better each day!
There is a lot that I have been learning in my ailed state, however, that I am grateful for. One of them is allowing Heavenly Father to use me as an instrument, and give me strength. While it is uncomfortable and requires a whole lot of faith, He can use me even more when I am weak. Whether it be emotional or physical, it is in those situations that He literally becomes my whole strength, because I do not have my own. In studying it, I was reading Ether 12:6, and then cross-referenced 2 Corinthians 12:9. It is such a blessing to see My Father, and my Savior working with and through me. I become a new creature through Christ. (See Moroni 10:32-33) As hard as it can be, I absolutely LOVE being a missionary. :)

Cold: weather- it is FREEZING here!
We had four days where we were grounded from walking but our cars were not, one day when our car was but we were not, and one day when both cars and us were grounded.
The day when we were completely locked in was wonderful in its own way though. We saw it as a tender mercy.
I spent a lot of time catching up on journaling, we cleaned up our apartment, and when the evening came, I had an awesome experience. It was pretty simple, but basically, we made a thai meal, start to finish, with actual raw ingredients. I got to be completely back in my element. I didn't have to worry about time, or stress about a lesson we'd be teaching later. It was so so nice. Again-huge tender mercy- He knows just what I need.

Bat in the chapel is pretty self explanatory. We attended Julie's sacrament meeting with her (still just trying to support her as she transitions wards) and before it started, I noticed a furry brown clump in the top corner of the chapel. I was so grossed out, and just hoped it wouldn't move. I showed one of the elders, who showed the bishop, but they weren't too worried. Then, half way through fast and testimony meeting, it took flight. This happened intermittently for the rest of the meeting, with no screaming or anything from the congregation. All the little boys were on cloud nine. It was actually pretty funny. A few minutes before the closing hymn, one of the members caught it (yes-with his hands) and took it outside. ONLY in Iowa. :)

Julie is doing well. but smoked again. She is weening herself back off. It is so hard for her. She is doing great otherwise!
Mick and Angie both missed church yesterday, each for the third time, each because of work, but both are still reading and praying and plan to be at church this week! Pray that they will come!
Hannah and Corinne are both doing fantastic. I love them so much!
Please pray that we will find people to teach, as that is what we are struggling to do right now.

I love you all! Have a good, warm week! :)
-Sister Monroe

 Sister Nye from my MTC room. I love her so much! This is the first time we've seen

each other since we got to Iowa. We had so much fun catching up all afternoon.

 Turns out the Warners, who are serving full-time in my mission are from Ramona of all places. I named everyone I could think of, and they knew them all, of course. Including Jeremy! What a small world! They are serving in the Nauvoo zone, so it was a miracle to see and meet them.

 Sister Cannon and Sister Hill (who is my sister training leader AGAIN- yay!) wanted

a picture with all the sisters they are over. :)

 A package from Lacie. I was so thrilled to get it. It came on a particularly challenging day, just when I needed some love! A scarf for me, and one for my companion, a letter and chocolate. Pretty perfect!

 A March package from my mom! I loved it, and will definitely be

passing a bunch of these cute goodies to members.

 Tada! Thai peanut sauce chicken satay! It was AMAZING! 

A delicious meal in the making!

A blustery week in Cedar Falls

So, this week has been interesting. Definitely full of highs and lows.
The snow and ice that has been building for months had a few days to melt this week, and I was pretty excited, but it was short-lived! We then had a pretty good storm that left half an inch of ice hiding under about 6 inches of snow. Not too fun when you don't have the option of bundling up and staying in for a week while the effects of the storm disappear! We were grounded during the storm, and one other time this week, but other than that it was bundle up, say a prayer, and try not to slip on the ice that's everywhere. So far, so good. But, it's not supposed to get above like 15 degrees this whole week, so snow and ice piles everywhere for a while!

With the combination of the weather, Zone training meeting, and sickness, we did not do a ton of teaching this week, and it seemed like every time we had a day full of promising appointments- it fell through for one reason or another. It has been frustrating, but we are still seeing plenty of miracles!
Hannah is doing amazing. We met with her a couple times, and she came to church again this week, where she was able to meet the handful of young single adults (We only have about 8, 3 of which are active). She went to their Family home evening last night, and has plans to go to another activity with them, and institute this week. We are so excited for her! We have already grown so close. She doesn't want either of us to leave, ever. Haha. If only it worked that way! Luckily we've got at least another month here together!
We also met this incredible young lady, Corinne this week. She is here from Orem selling satellite, along with 7 college-aged guys, who she manages. She is a convert, and has a really incredible story. The short version is that she was recently re-activated, and working toward receiving her endowments with her bishop there, and hopes to get to Nauvoo here in a couple weeks. She is so glad there are sisters here, and we just love her. We are excited to be working with her as well!

Tyler was unfortunately anti-ed via the internet, to the point that he said he'd press charges if we texted him anymore. I don't even think you can do that, but whatever. It's really sad to see satan get a hold of people and turn them away, but we know that eventually, he will remember the experience he had and wonder what he gave up.

Julie is doing well. She was sick yesterday and didn't make it to church, but is otherwise great. We are just praying for her that she will be able to continually abstain from smoking.
Angie is great as well. We haven't gotten out to see her in about a week and a half, and when we called her the other day she said she missed us, and asked where on earth we had been! She is hilarious and always jokes that we have nothing to do but teach her. :)
Mick will be getting back into town after 3 straight weeks of work travel. none of which he was able to attend church. From our interactions with in though, he is doing well. We'll be glad to have him back in town though. We worry about him often. I take comfort in the knowledge that Heavenly Father is working with each of these precious children, and I feel so blessed to be a part of it.

We've had a lot of tender mercies this week among the craziness. I know the Lord is aware of me, and He gives me little reminders of it every day! For those I am sure grateful.
Thank you for all your love and support. It means a lot! I am absolutely loving my mission- I never want to stop teaching people the Gospel!

Love, Sister Monroe

 We've decided to start getting cupcakes every p-day. We have the cutest little

cupcakery here, and it's right by the library where we do our e-mailing!

 Sister Sumsion thought that these irregular pears were so funny. :)

 We did the COOLEST service project EVER on Friday. We helped at the local nature reserve, tapping all of their maple trees! They are collecting the sap to make syrup for the MAPLE SYRUP FESTIVAL that they have every year. SO much fun!!! This is me tapping in a spile! It was awesome, you can hear the sound change when you hit the center of the tree.

 Getting the maple from the tree.

My comp!

Oh, and we wore snow shoes to walk around on the 10 inches

that have collected there. It was awesome!

These are the head honchos of the nature reserve, specializing in maple syrup making. They gave us a really funny tour of the "sugar shack" and explained how they make it. They were such characters. 

We finished up cleaning our old super crappy apartment. Sumpsh was really

proud of this magic eraser when she was done with the stove. So gross.

Tender mercy! I spotted this big, gorgeous owl on our way out to church.

He's on the top of the fence on the right side. He took flight just after

I got a couple pictures. I was so excited- I've never spotted a real live owl before!

We built a fort to finish our weekly planning in last night.

Sometimes, you just have to! :) Sidenote- you can kind of tell, but I curled

my hair for church, with a straightener, and it worked really well!

A Baptism!

What a wonderful, tiring, snowy, miraculous week. Missions are crazy busy.
I am soo so low on e-mail time, but let me tell you all about a couple of this weeks miracles!
1. Sister Sumsion and I found out we are staying together in Cedar Falls for 6 more weeks! We are both just in heaven. Also, I don't know if you noticed, but transfers were on thursday. We are both very happy about. By the end of this transfer I'll have been out 9 months, and in Cedar Falls for 6. SOOOO crazy!!!! I can't even believe it sometimes.
2. We moved out of our apartment, into a wonderful, clean, spacious new one a week earlier than we had expected to. We called to see if we could come see it, and she told us it was clean, empty and ready for us. We picked up the keys 15 minutes later, and the elders and ward mission leader were able to help us move the next day. Such a huge tender mercy. It is so nice to be somewhere that we can feel safe, clean, and have the spirit all the time. So my address for the next 6 weeks is:
2207 Thunder Ridge Blvd, Apt. 7B  Cedar Falls, IA 50613.
3. Julie got baptized!!!!! It was a stressful road, but it has been such a beautiful thing to see the gospel take effect in her life. I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to help her come to Christ.
4. Julie brought non member family and friends to her baptism. One of them is named Tyler, he is like an "adopted son" to her. He was touched by the spirit while the elders were teaching the restoration, and upon being invited to learn more afterward, he said yes. Then he asked them about Priesthood authority. They recapped that part of the restoration, invited him to be baptized, and to read the book of mormon, all of which he accepted! They got his info, and he lives in OUR AREA. so amazing. He came to Julie's confirmation and stayed for all three hours of church. We are so excited to teach him.
5. Hannah came to church! We love her so much, and had a really incredible lesson this week on Patriarchal blessings. We were prompted to set a date for her to work towards getting hers, which she is praying about. She has been reading the Book of Mormon every day on her own, like, a lot. She enjoyed church, and we see her again tomorrow. I have grown to love her so much already, and she love s us too. We are excited to see her growing in the gospel!
6. I have had a cold all week. I know- this is not a miracle. What is, is that colds usually hit me like a freight train and knock me on my bum for weeks. This is literally the mildest one I've ever had. I know it is a blessing for my diligent work.

Well, that's about all the miracles I can think of off hand. Sister Sumsion and I are feeling like this transfer is going to be one of change and miracles and happiness. I am excited to see what Heavenly Father has in store for Cedar Falls!

Thank you for all the love this week. I sure appreciate it. :)
-Sister Monroe

 This is "Spam Musebi" the elders made for us last p-day. Elder Aiasau went home thursday, and had raved about this for weeks. He had to make it for us before he left! It was actually pretty good!

 She was really excited to see our new apartment.

  I love my family. This is a sweet package I got from Jen this week! 

 And one my aunt Vauna. Thank you so much!

 Julie's baptism!

I got one from Abby too! :)