12-23-2014

Dear family,

I love you! And merry Christmas! Just a heads up, I literally have about 15 minutes to email today because we have MLC at 2. :( I'm sorry! But I wrote a super long email in the car drive this morning, so there's my update. Sorry about the spelling errors, autocorrect is obnoxious :) Thanks for the emails!! I will probably respond personally more in hand written letters tomorrow when we're home for Christmas Eve. Just know I will be skyping Utah family around 10:30 or 11 az time, and Virginia around 11 or 11:30 am, AZ time so I'm not sure what that is VA time.. We only get 20 minutes :( 40, but we have to split it with households. Sorry! I love you! Thank you sooo much for the wonderful packages and gifts! And most importantly thank you for being such an incredible family. I love you all :)

Just as a quick reply - I'm grateful the court case seemed to go well. I'm proud of you! I'm so happy you enjoyed the package! Hopefully nothing broke :) That is AMAZING about K!!!! Wow!!! Christmas sounded so fun, that's so funny Randi is working at Shaffers! Haha, hilarious! And awesome! The baptism sounded amazing... I think it's funny what you said about the water being so low! Haha you'll see why later! :) That's such an awesome week! Sorry this email reply is so short!

Love you guys!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! 😊

Wow, it has been the most amazing week! So many miracles have happened, and it has gone so fast. I can't believe how time is flying by! Thank you sooo much for the packages and letters. I'm so excited to open them Christmas morning. And most importantly I am so grateful for my wonderful, wonderful family. I couldn't have asked for a better one to be born in. I love you guys, so much. You and the Savior are the greatest gifts I've ever been given, and are of more worth to me then anything else. I love you!

This week has been awesome! Wow! Where do I even begin?? We've had so many amazing lessons and miracles. I love the people here, and we have been working hard to testify and talk with everyone we come in contact with - whether it be on ge street, or the person were trying isn't home so we talk with their family. It feels so good to be a missionary! When you work hard, that is truly when your the happiest! I love it so much! Probably the greatest moments this week have been teaching M. After our incredible lesson last week where they said they want to really find out if this is the truth, our lessons have taken on a different feel. We gave her finding faith in Christ and she LOVED it! She had questions about joseph smith so we started just reading the joseph smith pamphlet with her, and it's been really powerful. She has so many good questions and she's opened up so much. And she came to church for the first time Sunday!! WOOHOO!!! It is the best feeling ever, when your sitting in sacrament and you feel a tap on your shoulder, and you turn around and its this incredible person who you love, coming for the first time! It was such an awesome day!! She loved it. I love their family. I really, really hope they grow to find their own testimonies and accept baptism. :) We'll see what happens! 

We had S and R baptism and it was so wonderful!! And crazy! Haha, things never go smoothly, no matter how much you prepare :) We set up the room, got things ready, and then sis St forgot her cardigan... So we had to run back home real quick. On the way back we heard sirens, and then a funeral procession cop car stopped traffic to let the funeral procession go by. It was the most interesting crowd! First was probably fifteen or twenty fancy, decked out vintage gangster cars - the kind Napolean dynamites cousins have in that movie, complete with hydrolics. One was like 5 feet off he ground on the left side and like 3 feet on the other side! It was so funny! And there were all these gangster looking people inside, just chilling inside the cars. So there was that huge fancy crowd. Next followed about twenty or thirty decked out motorcycle guys, on their fancy neon lit up motorcycles. The fanciest I've ever seen! And then followed this endless stream of cars with very, very interesting people on the inside haha. It was so funny! We were joking that a major gangster or "godfather" had his funeral that day. Only in Phoenix! So we finally got to the church, filled up the font, and everybody started coming. The program was so nice. The Spirit was so strong, the speakers were wonderful, and sister S and I sang beautiful savior again. Then S and Ray were baptized :) They were so happy and so excited! The biggest smiles I have ever seen! It was so sad, we filled up the font... We thought since the water was so close to the drain, it would be deep enough... Well... It was about up to their knees! Haha, that was so embarrassing! So bro H, our ward mission leader, had to basically have them laying straight back in the water to baptize them. But somehow it worked! R they had to baptize twice, because the first time he kind of panicked and put his hands up. But when he came up the second time, he had the biggest, brightest smile on his face I have ever seen. Afterwards they shared their simple, sweet testimonies, and it was so powerful! R's was my favorite. He just said that ever since he started coming, he knows he feels Jesus Christ here, and he feels the Spirit when he reads the scriptures. He can't read, when he and S read together she reads and he repeats after her. It is the sweetest, most incredible thing. And he talked about how he feels the spirit when they read. It was so powerful! I have loved teaching them, it has been such an honor. I love S and R! And they are so happy and excited to be baptized! 

The next day, Sunday, was wonderful. Probably the best Sunday ever :) S and R were confirmed, which was so powerful. They are so, so happy. In the morning, M came to church! Then in the afternoon, in the other ward, T came to church!! The mainstream Christian lady we've been teaching. She loved it, especially Sunday school. It's amazing how both of the lessons were perfect for them and their needs. So church was awesome, we had dinner with a wonderful family - the members are AMAZING here - and then we went to the mission presidents fireside! That was so amazing! A recent convert/less active, the lady whose been taking care of her aunt... Well, her aunt passed away :( so she'll be moving to Georgia soon. But she came, along with sister K, an amazing recent convert. It was just wonderful! The Spirit was so strong, and all the missionaries in the mission were there! Then Monday was e Christmas conference. That was.... Incredible. I love being a missionary so, so, so much. We started off with such a powerful testimony from pres T. The entire mission gets together, eats breakfast, and then is just with each other having spiritual moments and doing fun things all day for Christmas.

After that we split up into two groups and my group, the first group,
went to a beautiful Native American/cowboy art museum in gilbert. It
was sooo amazing! They had bronze sculptures, oil paintings and pencil
sketches, woven baskets, and many sculptures of their... I'm not sure
what their called. Their basically little statues of their dancers, in
their costumes and masks, representing skinwalkers? That's what sister
r told me what they were. But they were really cool! They also
had beautiful turquoise Native American jewelry. It's one of the
greatest collections in the world of southwestern art, and it's owned
by a member! It was so cool! It was also fun walking and talking with
other missionaries :)

After that we came back and had lunch. It was wonderful! I love being
with the other missionaries. I look up to them all so much! After that
we had an AWESOME presentation!! Pres T was talking to the area 70
and they had asked him how well the missionaries knew him. He said
well.... Not too well. Just all the instruction he gives us, powerful
testimony, and correction he gives us. Well, he was told to have us
get to know him and sister T, and J and K, T, not just
President T. So they spent an hour just telling us about their
lives, experiences they've had, their courtship, and president Ts
incredible mission story. Oh my goodness, it is so, so incredible. I
wish I could tell you all.  I love President and Sister T.
I'm so grateful they took the time to let us get to know them.

It was the most amazing day. After that we had a powerful testimony
meeting. I bore my testimony, the first time I've done that with the
whole mission. It was so, so powerful to hear the testimonies and feel
the Spirit. After that we had an amazing dinner, and then the mission
family home evening where we had tons and tons of musical numbers and
scripture shared. It was so wonderful! I was so, so happy. Sister
S and I want Beautiful Savior, of course :) first the melody,
then me alto part, then her the descant. And our zone sang the twelve
weeks of training! It was so fun!! We had such a great time, haha.
Somebody filmed it so hopefully I'll be able to show you someday :)

This morning we got to go to the temple as a mission. It was the most
beautiful experience. I learned so much, and I felt Heavenly Fathers
love so strongly. I'm so grateful for the Savior and what He did for
us. It was wonderful sitting with all the missionaries in the
celestial room. We got to all give Pres and Sis T hugs. It was so
awesome.

I love being a missionary!! This afternoon we have MLC, and it sounds
like it's going to be really cool - they told us to wear service
clothes and come with coats and blankets. It's actually getting cold!
We're really excited! I think I forgot to tell you how transfers
panned out. Sister S and I are obviously still companions :)
but my new sister training leader comp is sister raynor!! My companion
from the MTC!! We were super excited! It's going to be a great
transfer.

Well, I love you guys. I'm sorry time was so short today. I'll make it
up with handwritten letters tomorrow :) love you!! And I love this
gospel. I know without a doubt it is true, and that this is the Lords
work.

Merry Christmas :)

Love,

Sister Whitney Morris