Week of January 27

Dear Mommy & Family,

 

Wow!! I can't believe how cold it is in Virginia! That is insane. Thanks so much for checking up on Medtronic. I'm so glad that worked out, we got a doctor here and I'll have an appt. Feb 15th. So glad that worked out on  both ends!

 

Thats so awesome you are going to go on splits with the missionaries!! Do the kids get to go too? It's amazing how much of a difference having a member with you makes. Seriously, it's an enormous difference. Just having that testimony and power of somebody living the gospel in their normal daily lives... it's amazing. So that's so awesome. You'll definitely have to let me know how that goes (:

 

I can't believe how freezing Virginia has been!!! That is INSANE. And our hauling water, with no power or heat.... gosh that sounds so cold! Haha and your all washing laundry in 20 degree weather... I really can't imagine. It's been starting to get a bit hot here, actually, just wait till you see one of the pictures I'm sending. (: Haha. That's so crazy.

 

Dagny is adorable!!! She has the cutest little face. That's so awesome your getting a sheepdog, and the kittens are soooo cute. And so is Peter, and Adam, and everyone, of course haha.

 

Well, it's so good to hear from you. This week was super awesome! And also kind of  hard. First, I also wanted to let you know that I really appreciate the spiritual things you write about in emails too. Like last time when you talked about how your working on developing charity. That is amazing (: That's something my comp and I have been doing every day during comp study, just studying Christ like attributes for 10 minutes. It's amazing how the gospel truly teaches us how to become the best people, and the happiest people, we can possibly be. It's amazing how they all tie together as well - faith, diligence, patience, charity, humility, knowledge... their all interrelated. When you strengthen one, the others are benefitted and become stronger as well. So that's so great your doing that!

 

Hello to all the kids and Dad too! Sorry I always write emails aimed at you, I hope everyone else gets to read them too and knows how much I love them and think about them and miss them, although I am very happy to be on a mission, I really do think about you all alot. So love you, everyone!

 

This week was great. We saw a few miracles. We've been trying to contact this less active man ever since we first transferred here, and we've only been able to meet him once. The mornings were always best for him, but he was never there. So we had tried afternoons a few times, but knew he usually worked and was never there then either. So this one night we had contacted everyone we had planned to. We only had about 20 min left in the day, so we looked for some more people we could try and visit. I looked down at our areabook, and saw his name, and it just jumped out at me, so we decided to go visit him. Well, we did, and he was there! It was amazing! We had a great lesson with him about the Atonement and just got to know him more. He's a really, really neat man. It was so cool how the Spirit prompted us to try him at that time, the one time that he was home and we could meet him, after trying for so long. It was way cool!

 

Another miracle happened on Tuesday. We were out visiting people with the Bishop, and we decided to try and contact this family whose kids were supposed to be baptized, but fell off date  because of circumstances in the family. We had pretty much lost hope for a while on going in to meet with them. Well, the Bishop texted them to see if we could come over, and they called us back and talked with him for about half an hour about everything that has happened in their life recently. -After that conversation - Her heart was so softened, and so we were able to go back and teach them that very night! And now their back on date for baptism. That would not have happened if Bishop wasn't there, or would have taken much longer to happen. So another blessing of having members come on visits too (: It was a miracle.

 

Those kids are soooo sweet. Their amazing. We made a little calendar for them, with things they need to do for their baptism, and they memorized the scripture on it! They recite it perfectly! They've also memorized the commandments, and showed us pictures of someone being baptized in the gospel principles manual and asked us if that's what it would be like... it was soooo sweet. They are such smart kids, and are so excited to be baptized! Their going to be baptized on Feb 16, and their names are E. and H. (:

 

One funny moment this week:

 

So we always role play in our zone/district meetings. Well, the missionaries here are so funny to role play with! One of them, my zone leader, always talks like a country backwoods man. He always says his name is Trigger, or Rope. So we practice teaching, and we asked him if he's had experiences with prayer. He said yes! And then he went into this looooong story about how he was riding his horse in the rockies, and suddenly huge rains came, so he fell off his horse, and had to sit in a tree and sleep in a tree for days, and then the rain stopped, and he started walking through the woods, and in a clearing up ahead he saw his horse in a little meadow... so he knelt down.... and he started eating the pine trees, because he needed the nourishment and was so hungry. It was sooo hilarious, hahaha, we all thought he was going to say he was going to pray. It's so funny because sometimes investigators, or people we talk with, really do take our questions and just run with it. One of the hardest things is learning how to keep the lesson on track and bringing it back to focus haha. So it's good practice. Our zone is awesome! All the missionaries are amazing. They are so fun to be around, and are also incredible examples. It's amazing. (:

 

Well, so glad everything is going well! I love you all tons and tons.

 

Dad - too bad about the mustang! Hope everything is going well with work!

Dexter - hope everything is going well at the shop, and with Brittany. (:

Isaac - hey, little bro #Isaacswag. Your awesome. (: And I carry my little elder sock monkey in my purse everywhere. Hows life going?

Hannah - hope swimming is going well!! How is your writing going?

Jacob - Thanks so much for the funny pictures!! Are you still learning violin/guitar?

Adam - Hope school is going great!! And have you gone sledding alot in the snow?

Peter - Hope school is going well, and hope you having fun with school out! :) How do you like Dagny? and the kittens?

 

Love you all!! And know everything in this email is for all of you. (: Pretty much, haha.

 

love,

Sister Whitney Morris

 

 

We helped this lady pick tangelos!! We brought home a big bag and their DELICIOUS!!!! (: (:

  

This picture is that lady's dog. He was sooooo funny, just this giant cute puppy. One of the biggest dogs I've ever seen! And such a funny face, haha.

 

Pic 1 - The Gilbert temple!! It's doing an open house right now, and will be dedicated I think in March. It's beautiful! We get to go if we bring an investigator and member family, so we're trying our hardest to get the people we're teaching to go. (: It's so beautiful!

 

 

A lizard! I've seen two this week. I also saw my first little scorpion!! Crazy!

 

 

So our church is in between the church of celebration and a catholic church. This week the catholic church had a carnival next door, including all day Sunday... and the church of celebration always has people - who look super nice - waving and holding signs so people will come. It's pretty funny, we're in the middle of them haha. Anyways, here's a pic of the carnival.

 

 

One day we didn't have a member dinner.... soooo we got nachos and a Mexican popsicle (: Delicious and nutritious, right?

 

 

 IT'S 100 DEGREES!!!!

Okay, okay, not really (: Haha this is the temp reader in our car, and it had been sitting in the sun all day.... I just had to get a picture for your reaction haha. It's actually usually between the 70s  and 90s (: