Dear Family,
HAPPY FATHER'S DAY DAD!!!!! :) :)
and...
HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOMMY!!!!! :) :) :)
You guys are THE BEST, and I hope you have the best days ever!!! Kids, I hope you spoil them!!
I'm so glad you had fun with G&G! Those pictures looked like a blast :D Thanks for having D. over for dinner, too!
I'm so glad you had fun with G&G! Those pictures looked like a blast :D Thanks for having D. over for dinner, too!
I loved reading about your insights from PMG! They really inspired me and lifted me up. I'm so happy you're reading it!!! :) The Book of Mormon challenge pics and posts were so great too!!!! You guys are awesome missionaries!
That's awesome you could message J. I have been teaching him - I don't know how open he is, but he said he read the first chapter! Hopefully it's planting some seeds. I know if he reads and prays, he'll gain that testimony from the Holy Spirit. I hope and pray he does, and that all our investigators do ha.
I'm so excited for your sealing next month :) That is coming so fast!! I can't wait. <3 Oh, and thanks for taking care of the blog (: I'm not quite sure what the rules are... we'll have to see! The letter I sent should be the name and address of the doc in Arizona, that I sent in the mail. That was his info! Hopefully it comes - or came? in the mail already! I sent it last Monday.
Also thanks so much for the package!!! I LOVED the sock monkey, the skirt is SO cute!! And funny story about the cd - I love that cd!! I remember listening to it in New Jersey and it helped me a lot :) So funny story - l opened the cd, and freaked out, and was telling Sis D about it - and she asks... "Wait... whose it by?" I tell her, and it turns out the singer is her aunt!!! How funny is that?? She's also from Oregon, and we were born in the same hospital in SLC... how weird is that?? Haha, it made me laugh :D So thanks! I also loved the letters from everyone :) Those are always my favorite part!
Well, this week has been awesome! I think I hit my lowest point so far, like the past two weeks. It was soooooo hard. I felt so stressed, overburdened, pressured, and just irritated and impatient. It was so hard. But I hit my bottom, and since then - especially the end of this week - I have been coming back up. It's amazing. :)
I think I just finally realized that I needed to turn to the Savior in everything, and not worry about things that don't matter.
It's funny - during my whole mission, half the time I am absolutely nervous or scared - whether it be in talking to people, training in district meetings once in a while, etc. There are many things out of your comfort zone as a missionary!
Well, in the past I've always just sucked it up and done my best, and done it anyway.
This past week, I've still felt nervous... but I've found that the words and the things we do in lessons have started just coming out naturally. I still feel so nervous the whole time, and often don't know what to say. But I open my mouth, and the Spirit guides me and helps me know what to say, and it just comes out! And it's coming out better than it has my whole mission! I am so grateful!!
This week has been awesome. The greatest thing this week, or the most exciting thing, that has happened is online proselyting!! We've been using facebook for missionary work since the beginning of my mission, and it was going well... but I didn't really know how to use it. I would just message current investigators or post uplifting thoughts or work with members. However, there are some missionaries that have been teaching people from all over the world, and some of those people - like in Africa and other remote areas - have been getting baptized! Well, our zone leader - Elder D (he's from Argentina) is a pro! He taught Sis D and I how to use facebook to find people! So I've started finding and teaching people online. Right now I'm talking to J, and then a lady who I'm not sure where she lives, but she speaks Fijian and limited english... and then a young man from India. It's so cool!! And so exciting! I'm still learning how to use it, but it's so exciting to learn, and to use it more efficiently to do missionary work. I am so excited :D
J is doing awesome. She had a very difficult family time the last few weeks, and now wants to wait until K gets home to be baptized. So she'll be baptized on July 12th... after transfers. I really hope I'm still here! But she's so solid. She goes to yw activities on her own, and church, and we brought her to a mission president fireside last night, which she loved. She's doing awesome. :)
We also started teaching a lady named C, who has come through an awful, awful past. She's trying to get a divorce right now from a scary man, and trying to keep herself and her children safe. It's soo heartbreaking. But we started teaching her, she felt hopeless and lost and so sad. She still feels this way I think... but even in our second or third lesson with her, we have started seeing small rays of hope enter into her attitude and into her life. It has been so humbling. She came to a baptism on Saturday, and felt the Spirit. She wants to fill her life with more positive things, and it's amazing to see her be able to have hope. We are inviting her to be baptized on July 19th tonight. We will see how it goes! Please pray for her!
We also had a really cool experience this past week. We went out with your yw president in our ward. Well, we usually ask members if they have a few people - inactive members, nm friends, etc, they would like to go by. That night, she said she felt prompted to go visit a young woman who hasn't been to church in a long, long time. We went by, and knocked on the door, and the mom answered and she was just crying and crying. A few days before her daughter - the yw - had been admitted into the hospital and her mom was so sad. It was incredible to see our yw president comfort her and build her up, and make plans to be a support and a source of love to the daughter as well. It was amazing how she followed the promptings to help the yw in her ward and her family. I know following the Spirit that night helped us to be able to help that family.
As you have probably picked up, the people here have the most difficult trials. It is humbling and heavy sometimes. But it's also incredible to see their strength and their faith in God, when they turn to Him. I love it here.
Besides those things, it really has been a great week. Some really funny things happened. :)
We knocked the door of a member who they weren't even sure if he still lived there or not. He had a ton of parakeets outside his front door (they have wild ones here! And keep them as pets outside.) Well, he opened the door, and we're pretty sure he was drunk... but when we introduced ourselves, he said "The missionaries!! I am crying tears of happiness!" Hahaha, we talked and set up an appt, and as we were leaving the parakeets all started cat whistling at us.... the guy must have thought we thought it was him, because he yelled out "those are the parakeets!" haha it was so funny!
We also street contacted the cutest old man! He was so funny. It was his birthday, and he was turning like 65. He went off on this huge rant about how he hated church because the preachers take all his money.... he asked if our preachers did, and we said no, that they were volunteers. Then he asked who led our church, and we told him a prophet, and he just went off how that was even worse than preachers. It was so sad, but he was the cutest old man that he wasn't mean or anything... just very, very dramatic haha. Anyways, we left with us telling him Happy Birthday and him telling us not to believe in prophets. You just got to love them!
So yeah, it was a great week. :) I hope you guys all have a wonderful one. I'm running out of time, but I'll write later today, especially for fathers day and Mommy's birthday :)
Love you guys!! :) Thanks for your prayers and love. Talk with ya next week!
love,
Sister Whitney Morris
Sis D got asked to play in sacrament mtg... she plays about as well as I do... hahaha it was so funny. She's awesome!
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