11-3-2014

 

Dear Family,

Wow!! I love the Halloween costumes!! Hannah looks gorgeous, Jacob's costume is SO cool!! That's so awesome he made it!! And Peter and Adam just look adorable! Haha the diseased pumpking was disgusting... and the Virginia houses decorated like Halloween were soooo beautiful. :) Hannah, good job running too!! Your going to be in better shape then I am when I get home haha :D I'm glad Dexter is doing well. His puppy sounds sooo cute. :) Brittany messaged me on facebook, and they just changed the rules so I can't answer family messages or anyone related to family without permission from my mission president first. So that's why I didn't answer! Sorry! That's exciting about D.  Maybe I'll just message him on FB this week and ask him if she wants to learn, and say you had mentioned it.

It was so cool to read about your experiences with the missionaries!!! Dad, that is SO COOL you were able to help the Marine out. That is seriously a miracle. I love hearing about the miracles that come from bringing members out with us. That definitely would not have happened if you hadn't been there... that is so cool!! :) Do you think you'll go back and visit him again with them? Mommy, I loved the experiences you had too! Especially how you were able to help that one lady with her struggles with her daughter. It is amazing how when we bring members, Heavenly Father leads us to teach people who the member can relate with and support and love, and understand their specific challenges and trials and heartaches. I bet no other member in the ward could have related with her like that, and that was such a blessing to her, and to the missionaries! That is such an amazing experience. :) I also loved your street contacting experience!!! Haha I LOVED it!! Because seriously, that is every single person we talk to on the street here in PHX. A man or woman covered in tattoos, usually shirtless or dressed pretty immodestly, drinking beer and swearing or something. Seriously. That was a true missionary experience hahaha. We actually even did that last night... we had about 15 min before stats, so we decided to just knock some random doors. We did, nobody was interested, so we walked up to this man sitting in his garage. Yes, he was in a tank top, covered in tattoos, drinking beer, smoking, and it was dark haha. Super sketchy! But we talked with him and had a great conversation. He told us that he is sure he's going to heaven.... and that people could still love Jesus and go to strip clubs... hahaha oh man. But he siad we could come back! So we'll do our best to help him out. :) The gospel truly changes people and changes their lives! It's so important to see them as their potential, as Heavenly Father sees them. That's when the true success and love comes. :) And the Spirit.

Well, sorry for rambling haha.

We had a really good week this week. It has flown by! We found out about transfers. I'm staying in the area, and staying Sister Training Leader. Sister D is getting transferred. She is soooo worried, because she has been in this area for 8 months. She's only had two areas her entire mission! But I know she'll do great wherever she goes. It's really weird, one of the Hermanas we live with got called to be a sister training leader, but mainly over the spanish sisters. So I think what's going to happen is we'll be STL's together, but we won't be companions. How weird is that?? We'll see what happens though. I'll get my new companion on Thursday and we'll know what's going on then!

Other then that, this week has been kind of crazy and good. Tuesday we went to the Phoenix Temple Open House again. It was so beautiful! We went with S and R. They are the couple who randomly came to church one day. We started teaching them, and they've been progressing right along! It's really hard to teach them because they are sooooo quiet. We do all we can to help them feel comfortable and open up, but I don't know how much they understand. But they are so, so sweet. They are faithful in coming to church, we taught them about the Book of Mormon and they've been reading together every night, and they came to a baptism. They don't have a car so they literally walk a mile or two to meet us at the church every time we meet. Yet they are happy to do it. They are amazing! So we're not sure how much they understand, or what their thoughts are, but they are keeping their commitments and seem to be feeling the Spirit. Hopefully in time they'll open up. We can just tell they come from really, really difficult backgrounds. Right now they had their kids taken away from CPS and another kid ran away. That happens a lot here because people are so poor, and just have such rough lives. But they are praying and trying to get them back. So their having a really hard time with that, and it's so sad. But they came to the temple, and it was a sweet experience. 

Sister D has been sick alot this past week, so we just stayed home for two days. That was hard. It was nice to have a ton of time to study. I've started memorizing the Family Proclamation. So that's exciting :) But I did alot of studying in the Book of Mormon, some in Preach My Gospel, and also some about communication. I've been studying that alot in my spare time to help me in my companionships, and also hopefully help my marriage someday. I came across this awesome quote by Elder Holland that I LOVED. It said

"We can spend our lives hammering away at our spouses, defending our rights, protecting our egos, pointing out mistakes, uncovering faults, letting them know our displeasure. But in the years ahead, we will find that a spouses's love will be badly tarnished and that he or she will not be thrilled to look into our eyes and will not be warmed by our presence. (I think this also applies to parenthood and friendships.) Or we can make a wiser choice. We can expand the effort to change ourselves so that our words continually reflect true love. If we do so, it is more likely that we will reap the reward of continually seeing our spouses eyes light up every time we enter the room. We have only one life to live, and it offers us the chance to build our marriages into an eternal love. What will you choose?"

Isn't that an amazing quote? I absolutely loved it. I also studied about how words are sacred. I never thought about this, but the ability to speak is a gift from God. It's one of the most precious gifts God has given us. He wants us to use it for good. I've made a commitment to myself to treat my words more sacredly, and to do better in never saying things that are hurtful or mean. These studies have impacted me alot. Dad and Mommy, what advice would you give? Or what principles have you learned, that have led to having loving, respectful communication in the home? And always strengthening your relationship? I would love to learn more from you.

We had some amazing experiences with members coming out with us. We went out with the New Jersey lady who taught Sunday school last week. She shared some of her story with us... it was so humbling! She and her husband moved here from NJ and became friends with the Bishop and his wife in the grocery store. They started taking the discussions, and everything felt right to her. She had always prayed and asked why Christ hadn't visited more people then those in Jerusalem, so the Book of Mormon and the confirmation from the Spirit answered her prayer. However, her husband came across anti material and basically told his family they couldn't investigate any more. They stopped being friends with the bishop and meeting with missionaries. But in her heart, she prayed and asked God " Heavenly Father, if this is the true church, please make a way for me to be baptized. I want to respect my husband's wishes. If this is true, please make a way for me to be able to join." So three years passed, and her marriage just started sinking. Her husband kind of went crazy, and divorced her. She did her part to keep it together, but he left. And so she took that as her answer, and she was baptized. Now she is so, so strong and active in the gospel. All of her kids are so strong too. Her son is 17 and can't be baptized until he's 18 because of his dad. But he has told his mom how he's grateful for that, because it will make him appreciate his baptism so much more. He is excited to serve a mission. Isn't that incredible??? The members and the life stories of the people I meet on my mission amaze me, humble me, and inspire me. I love them!

L is doing great! We are probably putting her on date for baptism this Saturday, and she will be baptized the weekend before Thanksgiving, hopefully :) We also had stake conference this past week and Pres Uchtdorf and Elder Christofferson spoke!! It was so amazing!! Did you know that Pres Uchtdorf lived in Glendale, AZ? AND that he got his endowments in the Mesa temple?? How cool is that??? And then a lady in the yw presidency spoke, Sister McConkie, and she used to live right across the street from the Mesa temple! That was so cool! It made me feel so priviledged once again to be serving here. :) Arizona is awesome!!

Well, I think that's about all this week. We went to the trunk or treat monday, and on Halloween we just stayed inside and took a nap and wrote letters. We put all our mattresses on the back porch and slept outside becaues it's getting so cool now!! It's in the 60s!!! WOW! Haha. So, we had one crazy story...

We had our mattresses all out, it was so cozy, Halloween night, and we had all talked and had fun and now were falling asleep... and then suddenly - down the street from our house is a nightclub. So we hear this LOUD awful rap music. It wasn't too bad... but then they turned it up and it got even louder!! It was so obnoxious!!! So Sis D and I went inside and slept inside. It kept going until around 4 in the morning, when there were gunshots, and then a bunch of police sirens, and then the music finally turned off haha. How crazy is that?? Halloween in Phoenix... haha it is sooo crazy here. But I love it. And we are safe and protected, and in by 9 every night, so we stay away from the scary stuff in the scary hours. :) But yeah it was pretty crazy!

Thanks for getting the insulin pump holder! And I'll have to write him. I asked my mission president today about permission, but I'm sure it will be fine. We can write anyone outside the mission boundaries, so it should be okay if their deployed, and because it's service. :) The program is called "Adopt a Soldier." Thanks for doing that! :)  That is also a miracle tithing moment!! Wow! I will have to share that next time we teach someone who has a problem with tithing. That is so cool :) 

Well thanks for the emails! And for the Halloween letters!! I LOVED them. I love you guys! Can you believe it's almost been a year since I've seen you?? A year ago we were decorating the Cmas tree before I left... awww! That's so crazy! I'm so excited for Isaac next year! He better wait to leave until I can atleast enjoy some of his goofy humor before he leaves :) I'm happy Peter is going to be his dobby in training hahaha.

Love you guys! Have an awesome week. I love this gospel, and being a missionary is the greatest thing I have ever, ever done. I hope you all get to experience it someday. :)

Love you!

love,

Sister Morris





Funny drawing under our mattress when we took it off

our mattresses, and candles on our back porch :)

having fun! :) with our no makeup, before bedtime faces haha.

a view of phoenix

we pulled a prank on the elders :) we had all this random food, candy, and little buddha statues from a service project, and we had a key to their mailbox... so we put it in their mailbox haha. It was funny!

We also put a squid in a little baggy in there... hahaha. It was great.

 

trunk or treat

 



temple

Squid!!! So the Hawiian sister we live with, her family sent her a COOLER. Yes, a HUGE cooler filled with raw fish, shrimp, squid, hawaiin macadamian chocolate, all sorts of food!! So she made us some squid... and it was yummy!! Haha gross huh??

We did our toes waiting for transfer calls last night! :) our funny shoe tanlines... they're alot worse in the summer haha. now their fading because we almost never bike. our area is too big.

Fun graffiti :)

 

 

L's CRAZY kitten! It acts like a dog. It waves it's tail, and every single lesson it just plays with and bites L's hands. It's such a funny, cute, wild little thing!

 

And L and I and a brand new baby puppy :) Soooo cute!

Photobooth at open house ":) This is S and R, and Bro H, our WML in Vineyard Ward. Fun fun!