Almost Christmas in Arizona

Hey!!!

Awww that is the happiest email I've ever gotten!! Seriously. I read something that makes me laugh or gets me so excited - like I. kissing S. (WHAT?????!!!), Dexter punching through the glass window on accident haha, and having the J's over, and D's baptism. That is so awesome G. and people from Shaffers came!! I am seriously so happy for D! I wish I could have been there! But am so happy to be here so it's okay (: I'm just so happy for him!! How incredible! :)
 

So this week has been AMAZING. Oh man. We've gotten a ton of things figured out about our area, which is good! We actually have alot of investigators, which is awesome. And we've been finding quite a few new potentials :) There are two sweet kids who are getting baptized soon, and their so excited! They love to pray and they can't wait to get baptized. Then there's one man named J.  who the missionaries have taught for a year, and who is so logical thinking and believes that the Book of Mormon is true, but isn't sure that Joseph Smith was a prophet.. and he won't go to church w/out his wife because he feels it's too far out of his comfort zone. He's really an amazing person, and is SO smart - teaching him is really intimidating! Do you guys have any advice on how to help him? He kind of reminds me of Dad (in a good way :) ) So I was thinking maybe he would have some things that really helped him learn the truth and feel a desire to come to church/be baptized.

 

We found two new people to teach this week - one is a family that was playing four square in the front yard. We went up and started talking with them, and the mom said she's having trouble with her kids because their starting to not listen to her, and they need a mentor or guidance in their life to do good. So she wants us to come and teach them, and their coming to church next Sunday!! Then we met this man, also just walked up and started talking with him, and we've been teaching him. He was a minister for 8 years, but is now homeless and lives with his ex wife and her other ex husband... there are some crazy family dynamics ha, makes me think our family isn't so crazy after all (; but he's a really good man, their all good people. So we're excited to be teaching them and getting to know them as well.

Then, cool story, last night we were looking for this name the elders sent us. Well, we got to the house, and the garage door was like 2 inches open and there were people in the garage. So we knocked on the garage (awkwardly! but we have a saying here - if it's not awkward, it's not missionary work - so we embrace it haha) and started talking with the family! The mom was busy cooking tamales, and we offered to help, and so she invited us in and we helped her cook for a while!! It was so fun! We talked, and shared the mormon message about Pres Uchtdorf's Mom (I LOVE that one) and shared some scriptures about how God knows our needs and will help us and provide us a way to obtain the things that we need. We had an awesome conversation about God. Also, she was baptized as a young woman in Guatemala, but stopped going a year after. So we're hoping we'll be able to teach her and help her come back :) She's pretty content with her Christian church right now, but she was so happy to talk with us and we were so happy to have an opportunity to serve her. She's amazing! So we'll see what happens.
 

I love being a missionary!!!! It's incredible. The Lord helps us so much. Yesterday, our first Sunday, the gospel principles class teacher wasn't there, so they asked us 2 min before to teach us. We were so scared!!! But we decided to just go for it, and taught and asked the simple questions in the manual about God's plan for us and exaltation, and we testified how He wants us to return to Him. Our class had an awesome discussion. The Spirit was so strong! So it's so true that the Lord helps us so much. He qualifies whom He calls, even though we are so weak, if we trust in Him He blesses us to be able to fulfill what He wants us to do.
 

This Christmas is going to be great. We're still in the apartment on the couch with the 4 sisters, with a beautiful Cmas tree and a few Cmas packages (: I didn't get the ward one, but I got some from family, so I'm so excited! The best part is definitely feeling so close to Christ. I am so grateful to be here, I can't even express it in words. Even though it's hard sometimes. It's THE BEST.

Well, love you guys! Can't wait to talk to you on Wednesday!!!!! :) :) :)

love,
Sister Whitney Morris


Outside doing online proselyting! The elders were using the comps, and we can't be in a building alone with them obviously, so they brought out the comfy chairs for us to sit on, haha.

Arizona sunset!
It smells like cows here, but it's soo beautiful. Just sand, cactuses, and small mountains, and a huge sky. There are wild horses, and we're by the Ak Chin Indian reservation, which is way cool! I guess they consider the horses sacred, so they don't allow people to take pictures of them professionally or anything, usually.

Peacocks randomly by the church... we tried to get a picture and maybe share a message with them (; haha but they ran away.

Face masks in Mesa with some of my favorite Hermanas (:

Hermana R's first taste of eggnog! :)