A's baptism!! It was so wonderful. :) The Spirit was so strong! I love this family!
Dear Family,
What a fun email to read! I loved hearing about Isaac's patriarchal blessing. I think he's pretty special too (: All the kids are. I'm so excited to see what they do and become as they grow up. (: That's funny you asked about D, I actually was going to ask about him too. I haven't heard from him since his first letter. Do you know if he has friends in the ward? It seemed like B. and he were friends for a bit. I really hope he's doing well, and is still reading the Book of Mormon. That's exciting Grandma and Grandpa may be moving to VA too!! That's so awesome! :) It would be neat to have them closer.
Well, this week has been AMAZING. I even wrote a spiritual list and a funny/cool things that happened list for you guys. (: So here it goes haha.
We've started teaching J, K's younger sister, and she is soooooo incredible. Oh my goodness. We have had the most amazing lessons with her! She is so prepared, and is so ready and excited about the gospel. The Spirit was so strong when we taught her about Joseph Smith, and about Jesus Christ's Atonement. When we taught her about the Book of Mormon, we taught her and testified to her about how important it is - how, with the witness that the Book of Mormon is true, ew can also know that Joseph Smith was a prophet, and that Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world. Her face was filled with happiness and excitement and almost wonder! And with a huge smile on her face, she said "I can't believe I'm holding it in my hands!" It was the most amazing moment. :) The Spirit was sooo strong. She is going to be baptized on June 14th, and we are so excited! She also came to church for the first time yesterday, and really wants to go to girls camp!
We taught her one lesson earlier this week, and then on Wednesday morning we got this text from K that said "I don't know how I did it, but I somehow convinced my younger sister (V) to sit in on the lesson today!!" We were so excited!!! V is also amazing. She's 14, and has been meeting with the Jehovah's Witnesses for a long time. We had a really awesome lesson, and she felt the Spirit so strongly :) During the lesson, she told us that she's grown to love the Jehovah's Witness lady that has taught her, but she didn't feel a connection to the religion. She had actually met with her a few hours before our lesson with her, and she said the whole time it just didn't feel right. She said she had always wondered why K and J were so happy and so excited when they got out of our lessons with us, and she said now - as we had taught her and talked with her - she knew why. She felt the Spirit, and she is also so ready and so prepared :) She soft committed to baptism, so today we're going to invite her to a baptismal date. We'll see how it goes! :) It was so cool, when we taught her about Joseph Smith we asked her if she believed that this could happen. She told us yes, she believed it's true... and that when we shared the First Vision with her, she had this feeling that she couldn't describe, but that it felt so true. The Spirit was so strong then too. It was amazing. :) I don't know if you guys have watched The District videos on the mormon channel, but every time I teach them I feel like we are in one of those. It's sooo amazing!! I love being a missionary!! And I honestly feel like I was sent here to Phoenix, just for this family. I know K is going to be a friend for life. :) She just left to Hawaii for two months, and I was sooo sad! We miss her! But teaching J and V has been INCREDIBLE, and I just love them all so much! I feel like I was sent here just for their family. We are helping unite their family in the gospel, one sister at a time. :) Haha.
It was so cool because the last lesson we had with them this week, we walked in the door, and their 10 year old sister L and their two cousins were sitting on the couch... V and J had told them all about us, and had invited them to the lesson that day. It was an awesome lesson, the Spirit was strong then too, and I know they felt it! The gospel just keeps moving forward!!
We've also had some really amazing goals set this transfer. Pres. T has invited all of the missionary companionships to baptize this transfer. It's amazing, because we have seen so many miracles. Our zone by itself has doubled the amount of people that they've put on date for baptism, just in the past two weeks. All the missionaries were assigned a specific companionship to fast for and pray for, and it's really increased the Spirit and the unity in our zone. It's just such an exciting time to be here. :)
It's also super exciting in the ward... with the new elders, we've been meeting with the bishop and our ward mission leader and putting together new ideas and ways to help the ward in their missionary work. We're really focusing on changing their.. perspective. Our ward is AMAZING. They support us so much! I absolutely love them. Right now, in general, there's a perspective more that the members come with us to drive us, and to help us find and teach. We are trying to change that perspective, to where we are going with the members to visit their friends and help them teach. It's super exciting. The bishop asked us to start teaching a class every Sunday, based on Preach My Gospel and a book Elder Christofferson wrote, to help the ward members get excited and have that perspective of hastening the work. It's so exciting!! I can't wait to see what happens!!!
We also had some super funny and cool moments!
I ate my first elote this week, which is a corn on the cob cooked, with mayonnaise, cheese, chili powder, and lemon juice on it. Surprisingly it's superrrr good, although they usually put too much mayo on. So with almost no mayo, it would be delicious :D I love the food here! Tamales, elote, horchata, enchiladas, carne asada... it's so yummy.
We got super cool Phoenix t shirts last transfer, and I sent some pictures. :) The whole zone has them.
We went out with a member named Sis R, and she's sooo funny!! I love her. She's an older single lady, whose never been married, and who is so smart. We just love her. She always says the funniest things too.... we were going to visit a lady named Joy, and we always pray in the car before we knock any door. In her prayer she said the normal things "Thank you that we can be serving, ect... and then she said "Please bless us to have joy as we visit Joy". Hahaha I don't know why, but it made me laugh so hard... she's just so funny (:
Another day we were talking with the elders in our ward, Elder A and Elder F. (Elder A is from Sugarhouse! SLC!) Anyhow, we were having this intense conversation, and suddenly over the intercom we heard Sister M - one of the sisters we live with - singing a song in chicken noises over the intercom.... it was soooo funny! We all just cracked up laughing, hahaha. She sang it for a long time too... it was so funny.
We were also out with another member who I LOVE, and I think she was having a hard day :/ It was sad. But it was so funny, because we were driving... and it was crazy!!! We pulled out of an apt complex and she started driving on the wrong side of the road, directly into oncoming traffic.... and then at the end of the night, I leaned over to give her a hug, and I opened my eyes and saw that the car was slowly moving backwards.... she had left it in reverse and didn't even notice! It was so crazy hahaha.
There's also this hilarious lady named Sister D. She's part of this AMAZING family, their son served his mission in England, and Sis D is so sassy! She's so funny! Anyways, during dinner the mom was telling us how her dog had been chewing on her shoes. Sis D said "Ohhh snap! If a dog every chewed on MY shoe, I would grab that shoe and woop his bum with it!!" She said it so sassy, we were all dying haha. It was so funny. Last week she told us that my nametag freaked her out every time she saw it, because Morris is her maiden name... so we always joke around with her and say "Yeah, that really freaked me out". It's just so fun. I love it here. :)
Well, there is one more thing - I've been thinking, and I think I may want to transfer to BYU- Idaho when I get home, or BYU Provo. I LOVE SVU, and the East coast, and I reallllyyyyy don't want to leave it... but it's just so small! It would be nice to have more friends nearby, and just more people in general. Plus it's cheaper, and has really good art/graphic design/photography programs. So I was just wondering if you guys could apply for me? I think I can write the essays when I get permission, but it would be nice to get it started now, so I could be accepted for next fall. What do you guys think? I'm praying about it, but trying not to think too much about it, because we're really focused on mission work. But it's something to think about :)
Well, I love you guys!!!! I loved the pictures, and I'm so glad everyone is doing well. Also, I don't know if I ever thanked you for the package with the garments and journal. Thanks again for those. :)
Ooh, we also had a baptism this weekend - A. He's so cute! I love him and his family. Their Navajo, and they have the coolest traditions from their culture. A is just the perfect example of being meek and kind like a child. :) He's just so fun too, haha. It was a wonderful baptism. :)
Love you guys! Talk with you next week. :) Also, read Alma 26! I was reading it this morning, and the joy Alma describes I relate with perfectly!!! And I know you can too. :) I especially love when he talks about how hard he worked, and then at the end, he says behold the number of your sheaves! And then he talks about how the sheaves - the people he taught - were safe from the storms, and were in the Lord's hands. It's the best being a missionary. :)
Love you!!
love,
Sister Whitney Morris
This girl is awesome (: she got baptized in March and comes out on visits with us all the time!
We got these super cool t shirts last transfer! A sister missionary we roomed with designed the pattern. The back is my favorite (: it's a Phoenix for Phoenix zone!
(A zone is the group of missionaries that cover a bit area. Ours covers North Phoenix. Their divided up into districts, and my district is the 2 sets of elders we share the ward with, plus another set of sisters. It's awesome (: we live with the sister training leaders who are Spanish speaking, and one of them is Sis L! She was one of the sister training leaders in Mesa when I first got here, and we were roommates then too! She helped me out a ton, and so I was so happy when she got transferred here!
Las fotos de Phoenix y A's Baptism
Also the palm trees and shoes on the phone lines... those shoes are EVERYWHERE!
Pictures with K before Hawaii!!!
Also V, she's the one on the bottom left between K and I, and then behind Sister D is J. They're so awesome :) I love them!
Us with J's nieces and nephews :) Their the funniest, and cutest, kids. I love them!
Pics with us and J :) She just moved, and I'm going to miss her! She's so awesome!
More pics with A and P and N :) Missions are HARD WORK and sometimes you are exhausted!
Also sis M doing a Mexican selfie. She's hilarious. She's the one whose super good at making chicken noises, haha
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