Dear Family,
It was so fun to hear about everything going on at home! That's SO COOL Jacob is going to Phoenix!!! WOOOHOOOOO!!!! Not as good as Tempe mission, but hey, I guess Phoenix needs one too ;) Haha, his area could literally be across the street from mine right now. I'm so excited for him!! Arizona is the best place to serve! He is going to LOVE it and be a fantastic missionary!! That's so crazy so many missionaries in our ward go to Arizona, haha!
Things are going good with the Adopt a Soldier! He even has emailed me back! He seems like a good guy, just like one or two sentence emails though, which is normal for a twenty year old guy haha. So it's all good. Mommy, it was fun to hear about you going out with the elders and sisters! It's so fun, the people you meet when you go out with missionaries. :) There are lots of interesting people... this world is truly a diverse place. But the Savior loves all of them, and I'm so grateful we can share the gospel with them.Or do our best to, anyways. :) That's so funny about the crayon lip gloss! Haha, the kids would choose copper and green.... that's so funny! :) I loved hearing about the news story too. I'm glad you kept that! That will be interesting to watch one day. I've actually thought about that a bit recently, and shared how God protected us and blessed us. It was an experience that I think really changed our lives and helped my testimony develop. I hope the thing goes well today! I'll be praying for you! I can't belive the Hobbit is out already.... so weird!!! Time is going too fast! I hope you guys have an awesome Christmas! I sent a fun package to ya'll today, I had so much fun putting it together so I hope you like it :) I'll let you know about Skype next week!
Well, as for me, I have great news! I'm staying in South Phoenix!! WOOHOO!! I am so happy, and so grateful! And Sister S and I are staying together. :) As far as I know, I'll still be an STL, unless Pres T calls later today. So nothing too much is changing! I am so grateful, because I absolutely love this area. I love both the wards we serve in. I know the Lord called me to serve in this area at this time, because the people I've met have truly changed my life, and have changed me. I love it here so much. I'm so grateful I get to stay for Christmas and another 6 weeks :) It is flying by!
This week was so awesome. We went to the Christmas temple lights with S and R, and it was such a great experience. The lights are STUNNING. So, so gorgeous! The palm trees, the fountains, the cactuses and orange trees, and the Christmas lights just covering everything... it is so beautiful! Pictures don't do it justice at all! And there was such a sweet spirit there. S and R are so excited to be baptized! It was so cute, we went to pick them up to see the lights, and S and her daughter P had bought Santa hats, so they wore those to the lights haha, and they also brought green glow sticks :) It was so cute! They were so excited! It's been amazing to see how much happiness has come into their lives. They are so, so, so quiet. Yet they absolutely love coming to church, and love the gospel - even though I don't know how much their understanding yet. But in their hearts they want to follow Jesus Christ, and they feel happy because of the changes their making. It is just so humbling and so sweet to see. I really, really love them and their little family.
We had a fun district meeting! Elder J, our DL, is so awesome! He's the happiest, most cheerful missionary I've ever met. Our district is just a set of elders and us, so a zone leader always sits in with us too, and it's just so fun! We are having a mission Christmas conference this year, next Monday so I'm not sure how that will affect emailing. But we are doing a zone musical number called the 12 weeks of training. This is how it goes :)
On the first week of training my trainer said to me, invite them to come unto Christ!
On the second day of Christmas my trainer said to me, feel the Holy Ghost, and invite them to come unto Christ!
On the third week of training my trainer said to me, don't break your ipad, feel the Holy Ghost, and invite them to come unto Christ!
On the fourth week of training my trainer said to me, talk to everyone, don't break your ipad, feel the Holy Ghost, and invite them to come unto Christ!
On the fifth week of training, my trainer said to me, ALWAYS LOCK YOUR BIKE! Talk to everyone, don't break your ipad, feel the Holy Ghost, and invite them to come unto Christ!
On the sixth week of training, my trainer said to me, patience with tiwi (tiwi is the little green box in our car that manages our driving.. if we go too fast, it yells "Check your speed!" or "Aggressive driving" or "Check your seatbelt", ect. It can be a bit obnoxious haha), always lock your bike! Talk to everyone, don't break your ipad, feel the Holy Ghost, and invite them to come unto Christ.
On the seventh week of training my trainer said to me, update referrals, patience with tiwi, ect....
On the eight week of training, my trainer said to me, keep cleaning facebook, update referrals, ect
On the ninth week of training, my trainer said to me, don't flirt with sisters, keep cleaning facebook, ect
On the tenth week of training my trainer said to me, don't flirt with elders, don't flirt with sisters, keep cleaning facebook, ect
On the eleventh week of training my trainer said to me, guess all the transfers (aka transfer predictions - just a funny thing missionaries do), don't flirt with elders, don't flirt with sisters, ect
On the twelfth week of training my trainer said to me, always be a greenie, guess all the transfers, ect.
It's super funny! We made little actions to go along with it, and our whole zone - so 18 missionaries - are doing it. It's super fun :) We'll have to record it and send it home.
We've had some really humbling experiences this week... this area is truly humbling me. We've started teaching a lady named M, who is in the saddest, saddest circumstances. She lives in a house with a ton of other people, and she literally lives in the living room, her mattress is just on the ground. We started teaching her, she was a referral, and she was really sick, cuddled on her mattress with her little dog. It was one of the saddest things I've ever seen :( Her doctor has had her on pain meds for a long time, and she's become addicted to them. She really wants to become free from that addiction, but it is so heartbreaking, because just being there with her it just seemed she was in bondage, from her addiction and also poverty. It was so, so heartbreaking and humbling. But we had an amazing lesson with her, she truly wants to change so badly. She wants the Savior, she wants to be free and to be forgiven. It was an experience that truly changed me. I love these people so much. They go through many, many trials that I can't even imagine experiencing. Yet the Savior loves them, and sends us to help them. One of my favorite scriptures that has stood out to me this week is Luke 4:18, where Christ says "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor, he hath sent me to heal the broken hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised." I love this scripture, because the Lord has sent us to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent us to help Him heal the broken hearted, through His Atonement and through Christlike love and service. He has sent us to preach deliverance to the captives, to those held bondage by sin or by addictions, or just by bad habits. He has sent us to help the spiritually blind recover their sight. I know only Christ can help these people become free and become healed. I know it because He has healed and helped me. It is the most powerful, humbling experience of my life to feel the love of the Savior for these people, and to stand in His place to help them - as weak sometimes as our efforts are, He makes it enough. It is just the most incredible experience. We have met many people with heartbreaking stories this week. I could tell you so many stories, I won't because I don't have time. But we are so, so blessed in our lives. We don't even know how much we have. I am so grateful to have grown up with the gospel, in a loving family, without alcohol or drugs. I'm so grateful to feel the Savior's love each day. It is the most humbling, sweet experience of my life.
We had so many amazing miracles this week!! We started teaching one lady who is SO prepared. We knocked three times, and were in the car about to leave, when she opened the door and invited us in! We ended up having a powerful lesson about the Restoration. The Spirit truly guided the lesson, and she got it! We taught the Restoration and the Apostasy, and she asked "So what this means is... well, what about all the other churches?" And Sis S bore this incredible testimony of how we are there to add to truths she already has and treasures. It was so powerful! And the member we had with us was perfect! It was such an awesome lesson, and we're going back Tuesday!
We also had the sweetest experience. The old man, Bro W, who went tracting - this week he took us out to meet more of the families we met. We were walking down the street around 7:30, it was dark and there were lots of Cmas lights, and we saw a lady putting up lights. We paused, and I could tell he was deciding whether to talk to her or not, and then he said let's go talk with her! So we did! Turned out she only speaks Spanish, but we had an awesome street lesson!! Her daughter came out to translate, we shared HE Is The Gift in Spanish, and talked with her a bit about Christ and the Mesa Cmas lights. We had such a sweet conversation, there was such a good feeling around her home! And she said she would like missionaries to come back! We prayed with them, and I said a very, very simple prayer in Spanish :) And then we left! It was such a sweet experience! Their a wonderful family, and Bro W is an INCREDIBLE missionary. He's like 75, and he still does family history and missionary work all day. He just loves it! He is so amazing! He reminds me a bit of Papa. It was so cool! After that I thanked him, and said Bro W, your the best! He got this humble look on his face, and said, I strive to be, so I can live with my Father in Heaven again someday. It was the sweetest moment. I simply love Bro W, and being a missionary!
We had another incredible miracle yesterday! So we were going to go the Christmas lights with another investigator, but that fell through last minute. So instead we
went to visit M and D, the family who just moved here from Chicago to get away from gang violence there. We've been seeing the greatest changes in them! As we've taught them, their attitude has been this is very interesting and good, but we're happy with our church. But we like learning more. Well, last night, we had a breakthrough. :) It was incredible. We started by reading the BOM, and it was kind of a normal spiritual lesson. Then D came in, and started asking us questions. He told us he feels so conflicted. They have concerns about the priesthood ban, but he started by telling us how good he felt at the Christmas party. He was just watching everyone, and he noticed nobody was staring at him because he was different, everyone was so kind and reached out to say hi to them. He felt so happy and warm there. He talked about how everytime we come, M is so happy afterwards, and so jolly, and there is just the most peaceful, happy feeling. Then he talked about how he has those worries, and he's worried if they join another church, that they will lose family and friends who don't understand. He shared all of these concerns with us, and M did as well, and they completely opened up. It was incredible! We just listened, and we ended up testifying.. I honestly can't remember much about what we said. It was just such a powerful experience. They asked if we had trials, because we are so happy all the time, and we shared how we definitely do :) But the gospel enables us to have happiness and peace even through them. It was cool, we felt really inspired, after he asked that.... we talked about how the church has members from every culture, every socioeconomic background in the world, and is so diverse! But sometimes it's hard to see. But the church has made these videos called "I'm A Mormon" to help people see into the lives of the members and see who we really are. We shared one called something like I'm a ping pong player, and make my mother proud, and I'm a Mormon. It's about a young African American man in the south who used to be homeless, who joined the church, and how his friends used to make fun of him because the "white boy" missionaries would come over. But he shared his testimony of how he recieved his answer from God. It was such a powerful video!! They loved it, and it really spoke to them, and I think helped them realize that this church truly embraces everybody, no matter what culture or face or past. The gospel is for everyone. It was so, so powerful! And at the end, D and M both said, I really want to find this out. I just want the truth. I think I might have found it. I want to learn more and go to church and take this seriously. It was soooooo powerful!!! And it was such a miracle, because it would have never happened if we had gone to the Cmas lights!!! Gosh, it was the most incredible experience! I really wish you could see and feel what I see and feel, because it is just so incredible. I love this little family so, so much. I hope they get baptized someday, because I know it would bless their family so much! They are so incredible! I just love them! It was such an amazing experience!!! The Spirit truly does guide us in this work.
Gosh, I love being a missionary. I love it so, so, so much. I love the people here. Sometimes I think of them and all they go through, but how much the Savior loves them and how good they are, and it just brings me to tears. I love the people. :) I love the Spirit. I love feeling the Spirit guide us, and strengthen us, and help bring about miracles in people's lives. I love the Savior. I know this Church is The Church of Jesus Christ, restored to the earth today. I know Joseph Smith was a prophet. I know God hears and answers prayers. :) We have had so many amazing experiences, but I am out of time. Someday I would love to tell you more, and I'll write it all in my journal so I can :) I love you guys!
I hope you have an amazing Christmas. Thank you so much for your examples! I love you! :)
Can't wait to hear from you next week!
love
Sister Whitney Morris
Christmas lights, lights on palm trees, us and S and R and sister D - an awesome recent convert, and a cool rainbow
Christmas lights, lights on palm trees, us and S and R and sister D - an awesome recent convert, and a cool rainbow
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