9-29

 

Dear Family,

Thank you for the emails!!! Wow, it sounds like you've had an awesome week! That is SO funny we got a pig!!! Hahaha, I love the picture of Adam with her. That is so hilarious! That is also so amazing that your able to showcase artwork in the store :) I would LOVE to do that when I come home!! That is amazing! I felt so sad for Hannah... I'm sorry that was so awkward for her. That is so awesome she is going to join that committee and doing all these things, no matter what other people think of her. I just hope she always remembers that she is AMAZING. Seriously. She is one of the strongest, brightest, funnest, most intelligent girls I've ever met. Her value does NOT lie in what kids at school see in her. Hannah, how they view you is a reflection of who THEY are, not of who you are. You are important, you are kind, you are incredible, and you are sooo loved, by your whole family, by me, by your Heavenly Father. You are incredible. You choose to be happy and do your best, and you'll someday find true friends who will see you for who you really are. You hang in there. :) 

Ew, I am soooo glad I'm missing stink bug season!! Haha, that gives me the shivers just thinking about it. Their so gross!! I would rather deal with scorpions any day ;) 

It's so fun to see how beautiful home is! The leaves, the crisp cool air... man, Virginia is so beautiful! I'm so happy your all doing well :) I also loved Adam's testimony! He is the sweetest! And I'm happy to hear about the sheep and the wool!! And I LOVE the cute folksy sheep paintings! That is so fun! :)

Well, this week has been CRAZY! Haha, but SO awesome!!! I got transferred to..... South Phoenix!!!! :D Yay, I'm back in Phoenix!!! I was seriously so excited!! I was hoping to go back to a more humble area, and this area is even more humble than my last area in Phoenix. It is going to be an amazing transfer! We found out on Thursday where we're being transferred to, and all the mission gathers together to find our new companions and find out our new areas. My new companion is named Sister D :) And she is from West Jordan, Utah! Small world! She is awesome. She's been out for a year, and we're both the sister training leaders for our zone. So we'll be going on exchanges with all the sisters, attending mission leadership counsel this Thursday, and doing trainings and stuff. I'm pretty nervous. But I'm also really excited. :) It's going to be fun, and a great opportunity to love and serve and grow. 

This past week has been super awesome :) I forgot to tell you last Monday, last week before Elder Christofferson our zone got to eat on the Native American reservation for lunch!! An Indian family made us frybread tacos, and they were sooooo delicious! We took a bunch of pictures and had a great time. The Gilbert zone is AWESOME, I'm so happy I was so blessed to be able to serve there :)

Monday was great. We had to wait in our apt until we got transfer calls (they always call us and just tell us whether we're leaving or staying, they don't tell us anything else haha. ) So I got the call to be a sister training leader... it was crazy!! I was so nervous I was shaking hahaha. But it was exciting! Sister W stayed in Gilbert, but she's switching wards. So that was a good day! Tuesday we had district meetings, and just went to say goodbye to everyone. A gave us a poem about smiling when he said goodbye :) It was so sweet. And we said goodbye to B, and that was so sad!! He said the closing prayer, and at the end he started crying when he said goodbye to us. It was so sweet! I really hope the elders continue to work with him, and that B keeps learning more about the gospel. I think he will. We'll see what happens. We actually had to pack up and move Tuesday, and it was so funny - all the elders were moving in after us. Well, the other sisters we lived with have a member who is a hoarder, and their helping her get rid of stuff. So she gave them some pink/peach sheets and ruffly bed curtains... and so we left all the beds with bright pink/peach stuff for the elders haha. It was a fun joke :) We left it so nice and sparkling clean for them! So that was good!

Thursday we had transfer meetings, and that was so crazy!!! They changed it, so now we all meet at the mission home, and just look at a posted list, and then we have to find our new companion on our own. They used to announce it in front of everyone, so it was a huge change! But I met Sister D and she's AWESOME, and we found out we are actually covering two wards in Phoenix South! So we'll be in charge of two wards... oh man, it's such a change! Neither of us have done it before. It means two coordination meetings, six hours of church Sundays, and tons and tons of people to see. It's going to be super busy!!! I'm super excited because it will mean there's a ton of work to do! It will definitely be nonstop for a while. So that's awesome!

I got to meet some of the people we're teaching, and it's very humbling. The people here are amazing. There is a young man named A who wants to be baptized, but can't be until he turns 18. However he LOVES the gospel, and wants to learn. He made us a strawberry chocolate cake because he loves cooking :) It was so sweet! He is incredible! We're also teaching an older lady named C... she lives in a care home, it kind of feels like a hospital. She is the sweetest person ever. She's been excommunicated, but wants to be rebaptized again. She's working so hard on quitting smoking, and she called us twice yesterday to tell us proudly that she hadn't smoked any cigarettes. That was AWESOME :) She is so, so sweet! 

We've also had the craziest experiences!! Oh man! So Thursday we got a text from one of our investigators that said "Sorry to ask this, but did one of your missionaries get shot?" We, of course, kind of freaked out. We texted and called her to find out what was going on... she said another lady we're teaching had told her that a missionary had gotten shot. Well, we went to her house to see what happened, and if it was true, and we told the zone leaders and everything, and they were contacted everyone to make sure their okay. We talked with the lady, and she told us that it happened yesterday in Phoenix, that a missionary had been shot but that their companion was okay. Well, we thought it must have been the Phoenix mission, so we were really sad but glad all our missionaries were okay. Well, a hour or two later, a member called us, and we asked him about it. It turns out he attends the addiction recovery program with our investigator... and it turns out that an old man was telling an experience he had 40 years ago in Germany where someone - not even a missionary  - was shot. Somehow our investigator took that to mean a missionary was shot yesterday in Phoenix hahaha. It was so crazy! We were super embarassed, because everyone was wondering what happened... and it ended up being super long ago in Germany :) Haha, shows how a story can be changed very quickly! So that was funny and pretty crazy!

People here are so funny. Another day we tried calling our investigator. This person answered, and had a British accent, and it sounded like a woman. They were saying all these weird things, and we were so confused... and then the person started laughing! Turns out it was a teenage boy in the investigator's family, just answering the phone with random accents! Haha that was super funny too!

We also had a HUGE RAINSTORM! Oh man... we were standing outside, talking to this lady, and the thunder was so loud it hurt my ears, and I saw the biggest lightning bolt I've ever seen in my life. It was crazy! It's been raining a ton, and the weather is so nice and cool. We are absolutely loving it :) We had to drive to women's conference through the rainstrom, and the streets were soooo flooded!!! I felt like we were in a third world country! We had to drive through it, and I was SO SCARED we were going to break the car. It was insane haha!! But the women's conference was incredible!! I'll send pics so you can see :)

Well, that pretty much describes this week. Sunday we had 6 hours of church, and that was an adventure ::) I love both of our wards though. I'm so excited to serve with them! A guy in our ward got baptized on Saturday, so we helped with the presentation in his baptism. It was really neat to see :) The work is definitley moving along here.

Well, I love you guys! Thanks for everything!! I can't wait to send you all the stories, serving in Phoenix again :) I LOVE it here!! It feels like home! I love the people and my companion so much. 

Hope you guys have a fantastic week :D I'll try and write more later! Love you all!

love, Sister Whitney Morris

PS I met Sister R's family!!! They came over and gave us cookies, and they were so nice!!! :) It was awesome!! They were in my district leader's ward, so they were super close to us in Gilbert. You'll have to tell her they say hi! :)
gilbert zone!!

 

 

#GilbertRocks!!

 

 

 

 

our district in Gilbert!

 

 

 

and me and A and the delicious strawberry cake he made for us! :) #sweetestkidever!!!

 

this is J, and the sisters in gilbert

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sis W and I 

 

 

lunch on the res

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

saying goodbye to the K family

 

 

 

pouring rain!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

pics, and us knocking on a door  in Gilbert :)

 

 

 

 

9-22-2014

Dear Family,

 

I loved hearing about E's baptism!!!! That sounded so amazing :) I was so happy just thinking of him out in South Carolina, being baptized. It is amazing how strong he has been, and I hope and pray that that strength and testimony always remains and always grows stronger :) That's so cool he still had the Book of mormon from 2010... that goes to show how you never know when seeds you plant are going to flourish :) That's why it's so important to always, always share the gospel! With everyone we meet! Even if it's just our examples. 

I'm sorry Hannah has been sick! That's no fun :( I hope and pray she feels better soon! That's so cool about the coconut pie too! Haha, so random! That's awesome :) We were just talking yesterday in a meeting with the ward counsel how important it is to become friends with those we visit and home teach, and let them know we really love them and care about them. :) Isaac's dobby voice made me laugh, haha. I love my brothers!! And poor Adam and Peter with ants in their pants!! Aww! GOOD JOB Jacob for standing up for the church in school!!! That is so hard to do, especially when your the only member in the whole class, or the whole school. You are so brave! And I know when you did that, you were standing up for Jesus Christ. I hope you all always, always do that. I know you will :) It's the most important thing we can do!

Well, this week has been AMAZING!! Wow! It has been pack full. Monday we had some awesome lessons... one with the K family, who I love, and one with a lady named M. She's not too interested in the church at all, but we were able to talk with her and she always has us play the piano and sing hymns for her. So that was fun :) She reminded me of Mommy - she started talking about freedom, and the threats facing our country. I told her she reminded me of my Mom, and I wanted her to add you on facebook so you could become friends, but sadly she doesn't have one :( She is awesome though! It was a great little lesson / visit. I really hope she continues to talk with us and hopefully we can help her have a friend in the ward. 

Tuesday was awesome too, and Wednesday... those days kind of blurred by, to be honest haha. We taught A, this sweet old man from Pakistan. He is the cutest old man ever!!! Oh man! He's probably 90, he lives with his son but his family is never home, so he's alone all day normally. We found him by just talking with him on the street. Anyways, we went by to give him a large print copy of the Book of Mormon. He was so happy!!! He told us he felt so honored, and that he would read it, and put it by his bedside, and tell his family about it. It was so sweet! He is a sharp, very intelligent old man, so I really think he'll read it :) It was so sweet though... he asked us if he could show us his "collection". We said sure! So he went to his room, and got this book he had put together named "My Collection". In it was hundreds and hundreds of bits of wisdom and inspiring quotes. It was soooooo sweet!!! He is just full of wisdom, and he told us that he would read the Book of Mormon, and would probably end up adding parts of the Book of Mormon to his collection book. Isn't that so sweet??? I love him! It's so cute too, he wakes up every day at 5, goes outside and meditates and looks at the stars for an hour, and then he gets in his wheelchair, picks up a sign that says "God Bless You" and wheels two or three miles away to just sit on the sidewalk and hold up that sign to passerbys. He said it makes him so happy when people wave, take pictures with him, or just say hi. I love A because he is so positive and always looks for the good, and makes good out of the situation he's in. He is amazing!!! I really hope he reads and prays! :) 

Well, the end of this week was definitely the highlight!!! Because.... Elder Christofferson came!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was soooooooooooo cool!!!! Wow!!! We drove up super early, and it was just our mission. So we were all in the sacrament meeting chapel, all of us together, and I was in the 4th or 5th row back. So he came in, and we all stood up. And the Spirit was so strong! It was Elder Christofferson (of the Quorum of the 12 Apostles) and Bishop Davies from the president Bishopric, and then Elder... I can't remember his name, but he was incredible, from the first quorum of the 70, all together with our mission. It was amazing! The meeting started, and President T stood up, and told us all that Elder Christofferson had requested that we each file up to shake their hands, and introduce ourselves and tell them where we're from. It was so amazing :) So I had an opportunity to shake his hand, look into his eyes, and the Spirit was so strong with each of those amazing men! I truly know they are called of God. The wisdom and things they shared with us were incredible. It was such an amazing meeting :) Afterwards we were so exhausted, because we learned so much and the Spirit was so strong. It was incredible!

Saturday and Sunday were great too! This ward is awesome. We took B to the mission president's fireside, and he really liked it! We had a funny lesson with him this week... it was sooo sad... but funny. We had it at a members house who he knows. So we were a few minutes late, because we went there straight from dinner, and we got there... and they were already in the midst of a huge conversation... about cats. Hahaha. So they literally talked about cats for about 45 minutes... we kept trying to get the lesson started, but to no avail. B, I love him, but he really does love to talk! But they became good friends, so that's good! We were finally able to talk with him about studying and prayer, and we had a brief powerful lesson we finally got to it ha. We invited him to be baptized, and he said he would when he recieves the spiritual validation. We gave him assignments to read that will answer his questions, and he is going to read and pray and try and find those answers on his own. We're hoping that will help him have a spiritual experience, because as missionaries we really are guides to help them find the truth for themselves. So it ended up being a good experience! 

The fireside was amazing too. One of our AP's (one of the missionaries who are assistants to the president - there's only two of them ) shared his conversion story, and it was amazing! He found the gospel in high school, and it was funny - he said if we had seen him three years ago, we wouldn't even recognize him because he had tattoos and earrings. Now he's a powerful missionary leader! It's amazing, and it reminded me to always try and see people through God's eyes, and see them with their potential. 

It was a great week! And... we got transfer calls this morning... it was an agonizing wait, haha... but I am being transferred!!! And, I got called to be a sister training leader!! AHHHHH!!! Haha, I am soooo nervous!! But also excited.... but also way nervous!!! So pray for me! Next week we'll know where I am, and who my companion is... haha I am sooo nervous. It's so crazy, as missionaries our lives just get flipped upside down! I'm excited though!! 

I think the greatest lessons I've learned here in Gilbert definitely have to do with humility, and my testimony. I know that God is so aware of each of us, and gives us the experiences and circumstances we need to grow the way HE wants us to grow. I have truly come to know that this church is true, that the Book of Mormon is true, and that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God. I have felt the power that comes from the Book of Mormon, from studying it... but most of all, I have felt the power of testifying of the Book of Mormon. Every time I testify, truly testify with all my heart, I feel the Spirit so strongly, and I simply know it's true. It is the most amazing feeling to feel that, and then to look into the investigator's or member's eyes and see that they feel it too. I know this church is true. :) 

Well, it has been a fantastic week!! Wish us luck as we pack, and prepare to move and change everything! I'm really excited, and looking forward to another experience and opportunity to learn, grow, and serve :) 

Love you all!!

love,

Sister Whitney Morris

 

They put this weird dust stuff on telephone poles, so we used it for good :) And realized later that hopefully it's not illegal haha... woops. 

 

 

new favorite quote

 

Elder Oaks awesome board of all the places his family has served missions! I want one someday!

 

And goofy faces... notice the bigfoot picture haha. That's by my picture wall above my bed :)

 

 

September 14, 2014

Dear Family,

 

Thanks for the email!! And thank you SO MUCH for the package!!! Funny story... I got the package... I was so happy and excited! I opened it up, and found beef jerky... interesting... and sour candies... and random rubber chicken throwing things hahaha... so I was like, wow this is random! And fun! I love beef jerky! And then I started reading the letters, and it was Brayden's package!! Hahaha that made me laugh soo hard. So I can send back the letters you all wrote :) It was so funny! So hopefully he doesn't get some cute skirts and girly stuff. I'm sure his fellow sailors would get a kick out of it, haha! :D

 

I loved hearing about all the fall things happening at home!! It sounds sooo cozy, I can totally picture it. :) The sheep, the walnuts, the gem corn, the leaves... it sounds sooo beautiful. That's so awesome. I love the color in the kitchen too!! Wow, it looks beautiful! It does open it up a lot. I love that mint color, it's so pretty :) Those Book of Mormon documentaries sound awesome!! I can't wait to watch them one day!  E. is so amazing. I have never seen anyone so strong, so fast. I am so excited for his baptism! I really hope we can Skype in too. That's SO awesome you and Dad are going to go down, and that you'll share your testimony and Dad is going to baptize him. That is going to be such a special day :) Thank you SO MUCH for thinking of him when I asked who we could teach! I just know the prepared people like E. are out there, and sometimes all they need is a simple invitation. I wish more members would invite like you guys did :) Thank you! 

 

That's so sad about the elder being sick... that's cool Isaac could spend the day with him though. Does he ever go on splits? That would be an awesome experience for him preparing to serve a mission! We love taking the young women out! I loved Hannah's pictures too, those were so cute! :) 

 

Well as for me, It's been a good week since Wednesday :) We had a super cool miracle after P day! So we went to contact the miracle referral from last week (the one where we talked with people right before dinner, and I had said (let's just go talk with them in case one of them is prepared to receive the gospel) and we met R. He speaks Spanish, so we're turning him over to the Spanish missionaries. But he's so awesome!! We started talking with him, and he was so happy to see us! He looked at our name tags and knew what church we were from... It turns out he is here for a few months from Honduras, and back in Honduras he is meeting with missionaries!! He goes to church because it's a few blocks from his home, and he has a copy of the Book of Mormon and has loved reading it!!! Isn't that so cool?? So our miracle referral just got even better :) We are so excited to meet with him with the Spanish missionaries!

Then Thursday was awesome too. I went on exchanges with Sister C - a sister I served with in Maricopa! So that was fun! We both can't believe how old we're getting :) we had a pretty good lesson with the kid named N we've started teaching... He's a cool kid. Really troubled teen, always always listening to his screamo music. But he liked talking with us, and we invited him to church.... And cool story, he came! We weren't expecting him to, so we were passing out programs before sacrament, and one of the members came and told us N was sitting outside the church!! We ran out to say hi to him, and he told us he was going to come in but he got too shy. So we brought him in.. He just sat in the foyer listening to his music through sacrament mtg and Sunday school, haha, but it was a baby step :)
it was awesome!!

 

We also had an AMAZING miracle on Friday. So we have felt prompted to try this former for a while, so that night we thought "Okay, we will go to this person first thing". So we did, and a woman answered the door. We asked if J was there, and she said no, and we asked how she's doing, and she said not well. We asked about what was going on, and she said her mother had just died, and she needed to move tomorrow. She said she was so depressed she felt like she was moving through molasses and couldn't do anything, she felt so overwhelmed and anxious and was slightly intoxicated, and needed help. So we immediately said we would come in to help her. She started crying, and told us that she had been praying that someone would come and help her. We told her God loves her, and that's why He sent us, and she said this was the greatest "God moment" she's had in her life. It was soooo amazing... we helped her pack up her room, all her belongings, and cleaned up a bit. At the end she wanted to donate $100 to the missionary fund, but our member convinced her to keep the money in case she needed it and said to feed the missionaries in Washington pizza, and she started crying again and said she would. It was so powerful! In her depressed, sad, alone state, God knew her and loved her and sent us to help her. It was so humbling. I know He truly does guide us to be instruments in His hands, and that He loves and knows each of us. That was probably one of the most spiritual experiences of my whole mission so far.

 

We also had an awesome Saturday! Haha, there were these grandparents who called us a long time ago. Their not members, and not interested at all, but they have a grandaughter on a mission, so they wanted to feed us and get to know us. It was so fun!! They're this loud, fun Italian couple, who loved talking and made us delicious Puerto Rican food. It was so fun! It was really cool that they had us over, even though their not interested in a message or anything. It was alot of fun :) 

 

We also had a pretty good Sunday. Church was great, N came! So that was a miracle! And we sang in the spanish ward. We sang I Believe in Christ in Spanish with the spanish sisters, and it was really cool :) It's been cool to pick up a little bit more spanish while I've been here. I love it! 

 

It has definitely been a great week. We also had some really funny moments :) 

Funny moments:

We were teaching Sis K, the older lady in our ward who makes
furniture, and she is soooo funny!! She was trying to show us a pic of
her latest dresser on her iPhone, but she isn't the savviest with
technology, and so she accidentally showed us like 50 selfies she had
taken hahahaha... It was so funny!! She was like "whoops, woops, not
that one!" As she was scrolling through a bunch of pics she had taken
of herself in her new haircut, with a serious, dramatic expression on her face.. and she's around 70 yrs old. It was so funny haha.

His hilarious picture of our zone leader... They airdropped (or sent
it) to our iPads... The longer you look at it, the weirder it gets!
Notice the goose staring at them from a distance by the playground
hahaha. So funny!

 

Well, I'm glad things are going well! I'm so happy to hear that Randi will probably be moving closer soon too :) That's so awesome!! Transfers are next week - eek! So next Monday we'll know if I'm being moved or if I'm staying. We'll have to see! Hope you all have an awesome week! I love hearing from you guys. And I'm excited for next Thanksgiving too :) The wedding, the holidays.. it will be so cozy! Back in Virginia! Until then, I'll enjoy the 90 degree weather here - it is GORGEOUS out :D Haha. And Dad, thank you so much for writing about GMU! It was really cool, I was biking, and I've been going back and forth on what I want to do... and I was thinking about the Smithsonian. And I was just thinking, I would love to work there... especially in the art department. It feels super right, because I'm not that good of an artist, but I love art, and I also love history, Washington DC, and basically everything back east... and it just feels really right. So I'm thinking that might be the route I take, going to GMU and hopefully working somehow with the Smithsonian someday. :) What are your thoughts? Do you know anything about that? Thanks so much for doing that for me! I'm still thinking of BYU Provo, but thinking about GMU and studying art there, and finding work there, feels so right. Of course my main priority, and I think Heavenly Father's, is to have a family and eternal marriage with a super solid spiritual best friend/handsome man.... so... hopefully there will be one of those around GMU... Haha. That's the part I worry about. But that can wait 10 more months, and longer :) Anyways. Sorry to ramble. Love you guys! Thanks for everything. :) And I can't wait to tell you about Elder Christofferson next week :)

 #AZTempe Mission is the best! #missionaryswag #calledtoserve #God'sTeam 

 

All my love,

 

Sister Whitney Morris

 

PPS I just bought the D&C 4 cd by Nashville Tribute band, so you don't have to look out for that one for me anymore :) However you should get it!!! IT is soo good!!!! And the boys especially, and Hannah, would LOVE it! It is worth $12!!! Also, for Cmas I would love a copy of "The Power of an Everyday Missionary"... and it would be a great Cmas present for you too :) Haha, I know I sound like a typical missionary, but seriously. That book is amazing! 

 

PPPS That's funny the text randomly turned blue. :)

Us with the awesome Italian couple who fed us!

 

 

The Australian hermana we live with! I love her!! She's so funny!

 

 

Sister Romano and I at mission conference!! I LOVE her. She's dying this transfer :(    Sad day...

 

and Sister Dewey and I, too :D

 

 

And Sister Williams and I...

 

 

And a funny palm tree in the retirement community. They have the most random yard decorations! This one is a phone on a palm tree, complete with the cord and everything.

 

 

 

 

And also a Swedish sign on the garage :) 

 

 

September 11

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dear Family,

Thanks for the emails!! I hope you got the postcard! I'm so sorry, we changed our P day to Wednesday this week because we went to the temple this morning. I was going to tell you, but I forgot, so I sent a postcard to tell you... hopefully you got it haha. Sorry about that!  I'm so glad things are going well at home! I LOVED Hannah's AZ outfit :) That was adorable!! And totally AZ, especially the shoes! The sock monkey and Isaac's birthday, and the Shenandoah swimming pool in the truck were awesome haha. And Peter's first day of school pic was sooooo cute!! He is the most adorable boy I've ever seen!!! (don't worry, all my brothers are pretty handsome haha).  I'm so excited for E. too!! We will have to set up a Skype lesson for sure :) That's awesome that sister is from Chandler!! I am in the Grove 1st ward, so you'll have to ask what one she's in too :) I got a letter from Dexter, and it made me sooo happy. I will definitely write him and Brittney back too today! She wrote me too and that was awesome! :) That's so cool about the ancient history and the Book of Mormon!! I'm so excited to be able to study more things like that after my mission :) The scriptures sound beautiful, too! Just one more week!! :)

Oh, you know what's cool?? So Sep 20th Elder Christofferson is coming to speak with us in the morning!!! I guess he said he wanted to go to AZ, and out of all the missions in AZ he chose to only speak to ours :) We're so excited!! So we'll have that and then E's baptism!! Talk about the best day ever!!! :D 

 

Thanks for the reminder to enjoy the journey.... I used to get so stressed not having as many lessons and not as many people to teach. It has been so humbling. In Phoenix we were blessed with so much success, it was easy to think "Man, we're doing such a great job!" We never really thought that exactly, but I was happy and content because so many great things were happening, and I thought that meant I was being a good missionary. Which I was, I was obedient and working hard. But it's humbling to be working hard, and not having as much immediate, visible success. It's been very humbling to reflect on myself as a missionary, and see all the areas where before I could just easily wing it as a missionary and have success. Whereas now... I can't wing it. I've been focusing on really studying and developing the teaching skills, and deeply learning the lessons. The growth and progress is slow, but I can see it gradually.. so I know Heavenly Father put me here to learn. I just pray that I'll be able to learn the things that He wants me to learn. It has been sooo humbling. And hard! But I'm really grateful for it. I love the quote by one of the founding fathers I think... about what we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly. I think I definitely took our miracles and baptisms in Phoenix for granted. This transfer is really teaching me alot. I hope the things I learn will develop into a precious treasure, because they are taking such a long time and so much hard work and sacrifice to learn. I've had to learn to sacrifice my pride, and so many things I want to do or make happen... it has been humbling. But so good. I am SO GRATEFUL I was called to serve in Gilbert! I think the things I'm learning here, I wouldn't have learned in another area.

Anyhow, sorry for rambling. This past week and a half has been great!! We had a super cool experience!!! I think this is the happy thing I mentioned last week, but I was going to wait to tell you about. So the week before last, we had a name of a less active person to visit... so after trying to figure out where the house was because it had a weird address, we finally knocked on the door... and an active older couple in our ward opened it! Woops! Haha, we were so surprised! So we just walked in and talked with them, and gave them a spontaneous family mission plan. Well, the brother, Brother R, he told us he had given a Book of Mormon to his neighbor's dad that their really good friends with, and said he has been reading it! So we asked him if he had ever invited them to meet with missionaries, and he said no, but that he would! So he asked his neighbor - the son - if we could come visit them, and the son said yes!!!! Woohoo!!! So we went over Monday night with Brother R and gave a great lesson. Their an awesome family!!! The husband is S, he's a mechanic, and his wife is L. It was a breathe of fresh air teaching them, because they are soooo humble. They live in this small house, and are such hard workers, and they have such a strong family. Their marriage and their children are everything to them. And they have strong faith, they're Lutheran. But they are so humble that they are open and willing to have us share our message with them. It was such a great experience. :) We had another short lesson, but they had a bunch of family over so we just shared a simple Mormon message. But this Saturday we're going to have a first legit lesson about the Restoration! So we are so excited for that! It was such a miracle to randomly knock a door, and have a referral and a family to teach come from it :) I know Heavenly Father definitely blessed us with miracles that night!!

We also had zone meeting this past week, and that was AMAZING. I think I told you we had a general authority come visit... well, they trained us on some things he taught. The sister training leaders and zone leaders did. And it was AMAZING! The greatest thing I learned was about the "loser list". They talked about how the natural (wo)man wants two things: To look good and have power. When things go bad, they turn to the loser list - which is things like excuses, blame, complaining, procrastination, ect. They talked about eliminating the loser list from our lives, and taking responsibility and accountability for everything we do. They talked about acting, not being acted upon, and also about doing vs. becoming. It was AMAZING. It is so hard sometimes, but I've been working on eliminating the loser list from my life and my attitude, and it's made a huge difference. It was an awesome training! 

We also had another cool miracle this week. So we were going by this former... okay, this story is hilarious. So we texted this former, and asked if we could come visit her. She replied "You may... but only if you are willing to sit in silence. For it is in the depths of silence that we can hear God's voice." Hahaha, funny huh?? So we went by a few days later, and they have a sign on their door that says "enter in silence..." She wasn't home, but we talked with her husband and he was super nice. Well, he asked if we had visited a kid down the street who used to take the lessons. We said no! But we decided to go by him right after! So the former basically gave us a referral of another former, haha. We went by the other former, the kid, and his mom answered, and we had an AWESOME lesson with her!!! She had so many amazing questions about repentance, about baptism - especially infant baptism - and about the Book of Mormon. It was so awesome! We had a girl who just got back from her mission with us, and we all taught and testified, and it was such a spiritual lesson!! It was awesome! So hopefully we'll meet with her again soon too :) 

Sunday was awesome too! We taught the gospel principles class, which went well. All 3 of our recent converts bore their testimonies in fast and testimony meeting, so that was awesome :) B's was my favorite... but they were all so good! He has the coolest conversion story! He's like 70, and was getting a divorce. He almost had a heart attack, and decided he needed to get closer to God (he was a non practicing Catholic). So he had a massage, and Sister S, a lady in our ward, was the massagist. She started telling him about the church, gave him a Book of Mormon, and he wanted to come to church and take the lessons. Two weeks later he was baptized. He recently went on a trip to Nauvoo and Carthage, and his testimony is on fire, about the church and Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. It is amazing. :) Such a miracle! You never know who is prepared!

We had another amazing miracle this week! Last one, haha. Sorry this is getting so long :) So we were biking... it was pouring rain all the night before, and it was raining, so we were soaking wet. Sister W was kind of grumpy... haha it frustrates her when I change my mind about things, or am indecisive. So, knowing me, she gets frustrated alot sometimes :P Anyways, so we were biking along, and I had made a goal to talk with EVERYONE. So there were these people down the street, and I said, oh, let's bike this way so we can go talk to them! She said, okay! Sounds great! And then they started walking inside, and I said oh wait, I think their leaving.... she got mad and said well, what do you want to do?? in kind of a rude way, which I felt mad about, so I said to her in kind of a rude way back (I'm ashamed of it... I know... I'm working on it ha) "Well, let's bike this way, and we'll talk to those people just in case one of them is prepared to receive the gospel!" Haha, so we biked toward them, and one of the guy started waving to us! Turns out they were workers working on their tile. The guy waves us over, and turns out he is a member! He tells us that the lady who lives there is super nice! And is dating a member! And has taken the lessons before! And he told us to stop by and say hello, and say he told us to come by!! So he gave us a golden referral! Awesome huh??? All because we made a goal to act in faith. I thought it was so funny, because I totally said "let's go talk to them in case they're prepared" in a sassy way... and it ended up being true! Haha, it was awesome!

Sorry, that's my last story. There's many more to tell, but not enough time. Hopefully they make sense :) But things are going great here. Next week is transfer calls.... I will probably end up moving or being transferred, so maybe start sending mail to the mission office in Tempe :) We went to the temple this morning and it was sooooo beautiful, and so spiritual. I just thought of my family, and our investigators, and I felt the Spirit so strongly. Especially sitting in the celestial room. I'm so grateful I could be here serving a mission for our loving Heavenly Father. 

Besides all that, things are going well. I'm happy :) We have a united, happy companionship. So we have our bumps, but it's great because we're able to work it out and make things good again. I really love her and it's great being her companion :) 

Anyways, sorry I've written so much! I love you all! Here's some last funny moments from the past few weeks :)

Funny Moments

For weekly planning, we always gather as a zone, and start with a hymn and prayer. Sister W and I played "I want to be a Missionary" on the piano for the song together!! She played bottom hand and I played top haha. It was awesome!!

We had dinner with a family who have 5 sons this week. So one of them was 2 or 3, and was sooooo cute!! They started talking about this new family that moved in, and their 15 yr old son said something about "I call the cute one! (talking about the new teenage girl). Well, the two year old kid stands up, points to me, and says "I call her!!" Hahaha, it was sooo funny! Kids are hilarious! It was super cute. 

We got caught in a haboob! Biking!! So we were biking along, and we saw this HUGE dust cloud coming... we biked to our lesson, but we got caught in the middle of a dust storm! It was crazy! Biking, the wind blowing, dust EVERYWHERE - I felt like I was in the middle of a tornado. It was crazy!

And also, the next week, the flooding.... it flooded so much, there were people canoing in the streets! We had to bike through it, so we biked through around 4 inches of water on the sidewalk... it was wayyyy deeper off the sidewalk. It was crazy! But so fun! I love AZ!

Love you guys!! I might write more later. Can't wait to hear from you next week :) I want to hear all about what's happening at home! Love you!

XOoooxxxXOxoooo (nacho libre... haha....)

love,

Sister Whitney Morris :)



Pics of our zone, our temple trip this morning, the dust storm, and the floods, and also Sis W made me breakfast on my halfway mark :) over 9 months!! So crazy... it's gone so fast!