love, serve, teach: August 4, 2012

Dear Family,

I'm glad things are going well at home! I always love reading about everything, and the fun pictures you send :) The sass squatch was sooooo funny.... hahaha, that was hilarious! You guys were doing great in the FB conversation :) No worries about it kind of ending.... to be honest, I'm still figuring it all out too. So we're learning together :) It was so cool that everyone's been reading. I cannot tell you how powerful the Book of Mormon is, when we ponder and study it.

D. helped me teach the guy I'm sending the referral in for! It's so exciting! He is really excited to learn more.. I can't wait to see what happens :) All the way in Kenya!

That's too bad about Adam's retainer! Poor kid, haha. He's so awesome though, one day he'll look back and just realize he's having all these challenges because he's too awesome :) All the kids are! That's so sad about the sheep and foot rot too! And Chessie! Poor girls!

That's so awesome Isaac and Hannah went to SVU for youth conference!! How did they like it? :) It's sooo beautiful... yeah, I think I've definitely outgrown SVU. I'm having a really hard time choosing between George Mason and BYU... but I think George Mason, because I LOVE VA, and it's by DC and all the YSA in DC.... but then school and dorm life might be super hard.. and at BYU, it's got the social fun stuff, tons of awesome people including people from my mission... but it's in Provo. Bleh haha. But thanks so much for doing the application stuff :)

I would love some new skirts! :) I was also going to ask about a few things -

1) do you think you could check and see if there's any way I could get a yw medallion? I got my PP award, but lost the medallion... it was a pretty silver one, w/out the ruby. I would love another one, if the ward has any, or ebay or anything :)

2) an ice cube maker! Haha our freezer doesn't have one, and it's sooo nice to have to put ice in your camelback for the day!

and also I will need some new contacts pretty soon. I can mail home a pack of them so you can remember what kind if you want :) oh and also probably a list of eye docs covered by the insurance... I haven't had an eye exam in like two years, so I should probably get one.

Thanks so much! I love hearing from home :) I really miss it. I try not to dwell on it... it's been hard not to because things have been so hard. But I really love you all. And I wouldn't be anywhere else then where I am now :) But I really am so excited to come home and spend time with you. 10 more months... crazy!

We had an awesome week with P!! Remember her? She's the miracle investigator. One night we were going to try a less active man we had never met before. We accidentally turned down the wrong street, and knocked on her door. She invited us in, and we shared a message with her, and since then we've met with her 4 or 5 times. She's so fun!!! We had an awesome lesson with her this week! We've been working really hard to have a member with us in all of our lessons. Well, for her lesson we literally couldn't find anyone.... so we finally invited a man in the elders quorum in our ward, whose really awesome. He was able to come! We had a great lesson with her. Last time we taught her about Joseph Smith, and she had asked who was the prophet today. We told her, of course :) And so for the next lesson with Bro R. we watched one of Pres. Monson's general conference talks with her (on our ipads :) aka hastening the work devices). It was so powerful!! Bro R was perfect because it was a bit about the priesthood and having courage to stand up for what's right and follow God, no matter what others think of us. It was so cool because it was an awesome lesson... and her fellowships who live right down the street dropped by to meet her real briefly. So that was awesome! (Let me just say that she lives in the wealthiest neighborhood I've ever seen! The mayor of Chandler lives there, and the houses are gorgeous huge mansions... P's main fellowships, the B family, Bro B makes imitations of Michelangelo statues and sells them to Catholic churches. So in the doorway of their home they have the enormous statue of Mary holding Jesus by Michelangelo... it's so beautiful!!! So it's really fun!) But anyways. It was an awesome lesson! And afterwards her husband came home!!! We had never met him before because he works so much. But he came and he was super friendly! And he got along great with Bro R! The one night we bring a priesthood holder, was the night we met her husband... it was so cool :) I know the Lord's hand is in this work. And sometimes what we think is a bad thing, often turns out to be the greatest blessing, and Heavenly Father's hand intervening to bless the lives of our investigators. It's amazing :)

The great news is that she came to church this Sunday! Oh, it was so awesome... she wanted to wait to come until she could stay all 3 hours. So she came, and she absolutely loved it :) She's really social and made a ton of friends. And the Sunday School class was perfect - they taught about the Restoration, and they actually teach the gospel principle's class in the Bishop's office here so it's a cozy environment where people feel open and like they can talk. So the Spirit was sooo strong. And she loved Relief Society.... she even participated :) It was the best Sunday ever!!!!

After church we had dinner with her and with the C family. It was so fun!!! The C have two kids on missions - a sister in Argentina and a sister in Scotland/Ireland. So they had us, P, and the two set of Spanish speaking sisters over for dinner. It was so fun!! We all just talked, and Bro C bought this enormous like two foot long NY prime steak, which he rubbed in the seasonings and spices, let it sit overnight, and then baked it... and then literally cut off our own prime rib steaks off the huge chunk. It was sooooo delicious. I have never eaten so much in my life... haha, and then to top it off he made his famous homemade peanut butter oreo ice cream... it was sooooo good!! And P had such an awesome time! This ward is INCREDIBLE. The families are so, so strong, and they immediately reach out and love everyone we teach. They do so much to serve and give. Honestly... the work is a bit slower here, but I am so grateful to be here, because these families are some of the greatest examples of Christlike service I've ever seen. I just love them. They are hard workers and love their families, and their just so strong. And many of them do so much missionary work! I absolutely love it.

Well, after this, the sad thing happened.... our stake realigned it's boundaries, and our ward stayed the same... except we lost P's neighborhood :( how sad is that???? So our one golden investigator is now out of our area.... haha, it was sooooo sad!! But she's in our district leader's area now, and her main fellowships went to their ward with her, so that's good. We're going to miss teaching her though! And we'll be doing alot of finding! We will also probably be getting another ward to cover, so that's exciting. I would love to cover more than one ward :) So we'll see what happens!

Other then that, it's been a good week. I've felt... well, a whole mix of emotions. Kind of stressed, sad, but also so grateful. It's been a really hard transfer, but I'm so grateful for the things I've learned and the experiences I've had. Next week we'll know what transfers bring, so we'll see what happens.

Love you guys!!!

con mucho amor,

Sister Whitney Morris

Funny/Cool Moments:

We have to hunt for scorpions at night with a blacklight! They glow bright green! We found a HUGE one in front of our door... it was terrifying!! Their disgusting, haha.

There is a family in our ward with a pet pig... so they have this gorgeous kitchen you eat in at the table, with a nice view of their huge green lawn... and then there's this cute little muddy pig running around the lawn haha. It was so funny.

We were biking on this cool little trail in between neighborhoods, and - get this - there are cicadas here! How weird is that? They have tons in VA, but I didn't expect to find them here! So the cicadas were soooo loud... and we're biking along... and Sis A is terrified of them. Well, a cicada fell from a tree, and fell in her hair! While we were biking! It was chirping sooo loud, and she was screaming, and I was laughing, and she almost crashed into me because her bike was going crazy, haha. It was so funny!!! Missions are always an adventure :)

a HUGE toad we found!! Gross!!!

and a funny monkey golfer that reminded me of Isaac

mashing potatoes

and Bro C searing the steaks! Yum!

and an elephant cloud!

This HUGE bug we found!!! My tag is about 2 inches long - thats how big it was!

Some dobermans guarding a house... joys of being a missionary haha

Some books by a famous author in our ward :) I've heard her books are AMAZING, and super clean! She's been in scholastic catalog and sells in barnes and noble and stuff. Her name I think is Janette Rallison? But another of her pen names is C.J. Hill. Definitely recommend them for Hannah especially!!

pics from dinner!! The HUGE NY steak, it looks small but it was about 2 feet long, and the potato bowl was like 2 feet wide... and all of us at dinner :) I'm sitting by P!