24 August 2009

It's true! six weeks over already and I"m getting shipped outta here. I can't
believe I've already been with Sister Darrington for six weeks! Yes, I know I keep
saying how much the time flies and people told me it would but I didn't believe them.

I'm going to Fairfield which is in southwest Connecticut on the coast, kinda by New
Haven but not really. It's really close to the mission boundary (the far southwest
corner of Connecticut is in one of the New York missions). The address is 170 Ruane St., Fairfield, CT 06824. My new companion will be Sister Baird. She's from Sandy and has been out about fourteen months, I think. I'm excited this will be a very different experience. Fairfield is pretty wealthy, I hear. It is definitely bittersweet to leave my greenie area I absolutely love Windsor and not just because I was born here, but it really is a wonderful area. The other sisters called it the "fairy-tale area." I think it's almost everyone's favorite. But Fairfield will be wonderful too, I'm sure.

Funny story for the week: we were on I-91 driving to district meeting and saw a
motorcyclist. Not only was he not wearing a helmet, but he was texting while driving. Yes. Texting while driving. On the freeway. Sometimes I think Connecticut drivers have a death wish. Or maybe just the East Coast in general.

Girls camp was this week. The Young Women in this ward are great about member missionary work. Two nonmember girls went to camp this year, and they both came back committed to be baptized. YEAH BABY!!! One of them is in our area and the friend who brought her to camp is going to have us teach her in their home. Every missionary's dream, right there. "Hi Sister Monson, I have a friend who wants to be baptized, can you teach her the lessons?" Um, yeah, I think so. We'll try and squeeze it into our schedule. :)

One thing President Pehrson has really been pushing is having us extend the baptismal challenge really early in the teaching process, in the first or second lesson. I think the reasoning behind it is that you can weed out, very quickly, the people who are not committed. If they're not ready to commit to baptism they won't commit to reading or praying or any other commitment. That way we can move on more quickly instead of just hanging on to people so we can have someone to teach to fill up time. AND, this is what Preach My Gospel says to do. Anyway, I wish I had taken this counsel to heart earlier in my mission. I challenged one of our new investigators to baptism this week and she accepted. I need to have more faith! And less fear of offending people or scaring them away. Lesson learned: Preach My Gospel knows better! Better than me or what my trainer taught me or what everyone else thinks;hmm, it's like the people who wrote it were inspired or something. :) Yeah, I know this sounds like a "duh" statement but you'd be surprised how many missionaries in this mission, including myself, could do better with sticking to Preach My Gospel. Time to become a Preach My Gospel missionary!

Thanks to everyone for your love and support. I'm off to the coast for the tail end of summer (summer is short here, it's going to get cold soon). Love you!
~Sister Monson