love, serve, teach: July1

Dear Family,

Thanks for the email! I LOVED seeing the picture of the missionary wall!!! That was so awesome :D And it looks like the furniture I never finished painting? Haha, that is perfect! :) That's so sad Adam needs braces... he's going to be an awesome missionary someday :) He has the perfect personality for it, seriously! And testimony! :) I'm so excited for your sealing, and that's so cool Valerie is going to be able to come!! Wow! That is so wonderful :) And Hannah's dress is beautiful!

That is sooooo gross you killed the turtle!!! I hope it was quick, painless death... poor little guy. How was that turtle soup? Haha. And why did you kill him, anyways?

I really appreciate all you have added to online lessons... :) Sister D. was super impressed and said your an awesome missionary, haha. We've had to drop a few people we'd been teaching online this week, which is hard enough in person, but I have no idea how to do it online... Dropping is like a DTR (determine the relationship) haha, it's soo funny how missionary work relates to dating. It's crazy. But when people don't want to learn, we only have this limited precious time to find and teach those who want to learn and are prepared. It's our job to find them. So we still love and pray and stay friends with those we stop teaching, or stop teaching as often. But it's hard to let them know we can't keep coming by unless they do something (read, pray, come to church, be baptized). It's hard.. some people just aren't ready I guess. But I have faith and hope that someday they will be :)

Well, I have some crazy news.... I'M GETTING TRANSFERRED!!!! Ahhhhh!!!!!!! Haha, both Sister D and I are leaving! It's sooooo crazy, we're doing really well in this area, and their moving out both of us... so that was a surprise! Our zone isn't changing too much, it's pretty much our whole district changing. So that's super crazy! I'm excited to see where I go, and who my new companion will be, but my brain is whirling right now... It's funny, as a missionary your world just gets turned upside down, right when you get used to things. I guess that's life :) But it's pretty crazy, and exciting!

This past week has been really crazy altogether. It's been a roller coaster! The highlight was probably teaching T. He is sooo prepared :) He told us a bit about his story... it's heartbreaking. He grew up in an environment surrounded with drugs and alcohol, as many people do here. He grew up and didn't get into crime or anything, just drugs. But in his early 20s he and his 11 month old daughter got evicted from their home. He didn't want her to stay in the streets, so he agreed to help this man rob another guy.... they went to do it, and the cops caught them. So he spent 5 years in prison. While in prison, his heart completely changed. He started reading from the Bible and grew this desire to love God and to be a better person - to be a new person. He also learned how to read, he didn't know how to read until he started reading the Bible when he was like 25. It was so sad. But it's amazing, his face is so full of light now, and he has the happiest smile I've ever seen. I'm sending home his rap that he showed us, his poem. We recorded it when we taught him this week, but sadly it cut off, so you get to see part of it :)

The coolest moment was teaching him about Joseph Smith. We taught it so simply and just for him, and at the end we asked him if he believed he was a prophet. He told us yes, and explained how he felt the Spirit telling him that it was true. It was a truly spiritual moment, and the Spirit was so strong :) It was so amazing!

We also started teaching a new man from Liberia. He also shared some of his story with us, it was crazy..... but it was really neat teaching him. He's open to learn, so we're hoping the next missionaries who come will be able to teach him and help him :)

J. is doing so well! She invited her two cousins to girls camp with her, who aren't members, so she's just sharing the gospel even more in her family. She's getting baptized July 12th, hopefully I'll be able to come back and be there, if I don't get sent to Yuma! And K. will be back then too... I'm soooo sad I won't be able to see her before I go! It's amazing. I feel like I was sent here just for that family, for J. and K., and also to be companions with Sister D. I have learned so much from them, and they feel like extended sisters to me. I love them so much, and I'm going to miss them!

We also had THE CRAZIEST THING EVER HAPPEN YESTERDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hold onto your seats, because this story is crazy.... so about 10 minutes before sacrament meeting yesterday, we were talking to a member, and church was normal. People meandering about, talking with each other, the nice prelude music in the background, the Spirit there... so Sister D. and I were talking to a member, when we noticed this big rough looking polynesian man walk in. He started talking with the elders, and seemed angry. He pretended to stab Elder F., and Elder F. kind of ran/walked away from him. So the man walked over to talk with the other set of elders. Poor Elder B. put his arm around him and started talking with him, welcoming him to church. The man got super mad! He pulled out a pair of pliers, flipped it open into a knife, cut his own finger threateningly, and then raised it up to stab Elder B! It was soooooo scary!!! Elder B and another man grabbed his arm and held it back so that he wouldn't stab him, and he was trying so hard to, his arm was shaking. The music stopped and everyone turned to look what was going on, and they had a face off where some of the elders quorum yelled at him to put the knife down... the man started screaming obsenities, and then they wrestled the knife away from him and pulled him out of the chapel into a headlock on the couch until the cops came. How scary and insane is that??? Everything turned out fine, and nobody was hurt. :) But it was crazy!!! It turned out the man hadn't taken his meds that morning, he wasn't a member - just visiting with a member - and he turned violent. It was soooo sad, and soo crazy.

Haha so that's the crazy story I have for this week! Probably will be the craziest on my mission, since I'm leaving Phoenix, unless I go to Phoenix South :) But we'll see haha, hopefully that won't happen again :D

I also had a super funny moment like 2 minutes before that... I was wearing the opal heart necklace you gave me, and the member we were talking to said "Oh that's beautiful... is that an opal?"

I said "Yes!"

She asked "Oh, is your birth month October?"

I said "No, its in March :)"

She said "Oh.... Well opal is the birthstone for October, so if your birth month isn't October, you should probably wear diamonds around the opal to protect yourself".

Hahaha isn't that funny?? People tell us the craziest things around here :)

Also, remember J's imaginary girlfriend we told you about? Turns out she's real! AND she's in our ward!! Haha, the elders asked J. what her name was, and he told them. So they looked her up in the ward records, and there she was... it was soooo funny :) So J's funny stories have been real this whole time! He's such a goofy, sweet, and funny old man. I love him hahaha.

The craziest thing happened to T. too.... he had this awful awful weekend at his sister's house, where the AC went out (it's over 105 every day here - more like 110 or 112) and their plumbing went out, so they had to walk to the gas station to go to the bathroom every day. Anyways this giant group of guys kept coming to try and fight them, but T. wouldn't fight with them.... anyways, because the bathroom wasn't working, one of the guys went in a slurpee cup and left it on the counter. T thought it was his slurpee, so he went to drink it and drank some of it.... it was soooooo gross!!! He told us yesterday and he was soooo traumatized, haha, it was so funny. Poor guy! He had a truly terrible weekend, haha. But he is coming to church next Sunday, at least he's set on it for now, so hopefully he goes :) He's so awesome. We love T!

Also cool news about online - I talked with a man in Kenya who wants to meet the missionaries!! So I sent a referral on mormon.org and hopefully they'll go see him :) How cool is that?? We'll see what comes from it, but the work is hastening all over the world!! :D

Well, I hope your week goes well! I can't wait to see the package and get the letters about how a principle has helped you :) Mommy and Dad, those ones you shared were awesome. I loved them :) And funny enough, as infuriating it was sometimes as a teenager, I can see how those choices blessed our family and kept our family together :) Thanks for sharing!

Well, until next week... there are exciting things coming :) Happy 4th of July!!! Hope you have an awesome one, and enjoy John Adams for me. :) And thanks for looking at the schools! I'm thinking George Mason or one in DC or BYU ID or BYU Provo... to be honest, I don't know what to do, and it scares me. I'm getting old! Haha but I'm on a mission, so it's okay :) I'm doing the best thing in the world right now, and I know I'll know what to do. This is going to bless me and guide me for the rest of my life :) I definitely want to go where there's a strong LDS presence - so that's like the Arlington area or West coast, for the most part. But we'll see! Do you think you can figure out applications okay? Sorry to give you the burden of it, haha.

Love you guys!!! :) Talk with you next week!

love,

Sister Whitney Morris

Sister R. and I (: She loves family history and writes poetry! And my funny tracing, haha