1-19-2015

Dear Family,

 

Thanks so much for the emails! I love hearing from you. A lot of my fears about school and car and everything subsided when I heard how it looks like Dad has some good job prospects, and that I'll have a car when I go home. That is SUCH A HUGE BLESSING! Thank you SO much. You guys are seriously the best. I'll keep praying that Dad finds a good job nearby! It sounds like things are going awesome with his calling, and with the missionaries! I love hearing about them, and it sounds like the work and the ward is on fire with missionary work over there. It is super cool!! You guys are awesome examples! I also loved hearing about Jacob Ingham's farewell - especially how he chose the mission over the marines! Wow! That is incredible!! It's amazing how the Lord guides our paths and gives us experiences to help us choose the right... and to help us know that we are choosing the right, when the time comes. :) Thank you so much for the package too!! It really cheered up my day! It was truly a miracle, because that day was soooo rough. It was really hard. I came home, walked out of the car to check the mail (the other sisters always get letters from their boyfriends, friends, ect, and I'm just like.... hm... a letter from my grandma! Yay! Hahaha, nothing bad about that! I just think it's funny :) ) But anyways, I had this super hard day, opened the mailbox, and there was my package from you guys! It was really a tender mercy and cheered me up so much. Thank you!!! I love the mango yogurt bite things... those were delicious! And the adorable jewel notepad! And the letters, those are always  my favorite!! Especially Peter's Peter Man stories :D Thank you sooo much!! It was definitely a sign of God's love and your love that I got a package on that day. :) Thanks so much for that.

Mommy, I loved hearing your experiences with the Book of Mormon!! That is incredible, that their stories become so personal and real. I love the Book of Mormon so, so much. I want to continue to grow a deep love for it the rest of my life. I definitely know it's true. Thank you so much for sharing those experiences with me! :) That was funny to hear about Bro Is friend, haha. Man, the mission has changed my view of prospective eternal companions SO much! I think hands down that's one of the greatest things my mission has done for me. Before my mission, I think I would have chosen someone who I probably would have ended up miserable with! I knew nothing of relationships, or what makes happy marriages/companionships. Boy, I have learned so much, I hope so anyways. That will definitely be interesting, and scary, when I come home.. I wish I could skip the whole dating part haha, but oh well! I am SO excited to be a member missionary in college! :)

Well, as for us, this has most definitely been a crazy week! We have some funny news about A! So she was so prepared, so golden, and we went into her
third lesson, having chosen and prayed about a date to extend to her
to be baptized.... Well, we start teaching and she says.. "Sisters, I
don't know how to tell you this... But I've already been baptized!" We
were like "What!??! No way!" And she said "Yes! But I was only 8, so I
do think I should be baptized again!" Hahaha isn't that funny? Not
going to lie, I was a little disappointed :) But she is so prepared
and wants the gospel so much that she wanted to be baptized again
haha. It was really cool! It is such a miracle that we found her :) we
got her records into the ward, she's making friends with the sisters,
and it's just so amazing! Her husband isn't really interested right
now, but we'll see what happens in the future.

I have some sad news.. So we had interviews this week, and on Monday
my brain was just really exhausted. We went grocery shopping, and when
I came home I was so tired that I put the cheese away in the cupboard
hahahaha... I was not thinking. So I ordered pictures at Walmart, and
I think I left my camera at the instant picture booth :( It was the
saddest day ever!!! In gilbert, someone would have probably said oh,
this is a missionaries camera! Let's return it! But in south
phoenix... Not a chance haha. But it's okay! The one thing I'm a
little worried about is my mission pictures. But luckily, I think (I
HOPE) the emails save pictures back that far.... Over a year... I
hope, hope, hope.  So my camera is gone, with some person whose
probably pretty happy they got a free camera. Maybe it went to some
little girls birthday present... Maybe her dad was too poor to buy her
one, so he took mine, and she's been dreaming all her life to become a
photographer. That would be pretty cool! I'm going to check out
cameras today, and see the prices. I probably won't buy one because I
need to save money for school :P But we'll see what happens. Good thing is, I think I have about 90% of my pictures I emailed home, and the last 10% weren't really the best ones - they were average. So the most important thing is I have those pictures, and a camera is easily replaceable. :) 

On a happier note, we did have interviews this week, and it was
incredible! I love President and Sister T! I am so, so grateful
for them. I asked President about stopping in UT after my mission, and
he forgot to ask haha, so he's going to ask again. But I also asked
him for advice about school, and he gave me the greatest advice ever!
He said it was the same advice he would tell his daughter. It helped
me so, so much. He also gave me permission to apply for colleges on p
day, so I'll just start the college applications today! :) Dad, thank you so much for asking for transcripts and everything! I will still probably need your help with that part, and also the financial info and everything. I'm trying to choose mainly between GMU and BYU Provo I think... We'll see what happens! But I know my Heavenly Father won't abandon me, He will guide me and help me to know where I should be. Ever since Pres. T gave me his advice, it was so, so powerful, and I know Heavenly Father will help me make the best choice for me. 

We had some cool online lessons! We've been teaching C and T
and they live in Scotland. We've taught them the restoration
throughout the week, and they prayed about Joseph smith, and T
definitely got his answer!! He described it as being joyful, and
happy, and kind of hyper (he's a teenager, haha. Don't worry, we had him ask his
parents if he could talk with us, and he said they said he could... hopefully he is being honest haha.) they both want copies of the Book of Mormon, and they both want to meet with missionaries! C probably won't be able to, because his parents won't let him, but T said his parents would be fine with him meeting with missionaries!! So they are both anxiously waiting for a Book of Mormon to be delivered to their door, and for T, some missionaries to help him learn about the gospel!! I'm so excited for them!! :) Their really cool young guys!

We also had an awesome service project this week! Our whole zone - 18 missionaries - helped the city of Phoenix clean up alleys. It was so much fun! And SUCH hard work! It was so funny, our alley was totally filled with weeds, trash, dead birds... their pretty crazy. But we were cleaning it, and it was between two cement walls, and on the other side of one of the walls is this huge muslim guy's house with tons of palm trees. I guess he was really paranoid about us being there, because he sent a body guard - dressed in a tux, with a bow tie and everything - to stand there and watch us on one end of the alley. Haha, it was so funny! It was so cool though. Have you heard of justserve.org? It's this huge service website the church has been implementing in different places around the country, and the whole goal is to just serve people. We wear our tags, but we aren't supposed to proselyte - if someone has questions, we can talk with them later about the church. It was weird to not be inviting people to come unto Christ, but it was amazing to build bonds with the fellow volunteers who were helping out that day! We met so many cool people, and it was such a great experience!!! They have some crazy safety guidelines in case you find guns or drugs or something, and police officers in case we need any haha... but it was awesome to serve and clean up the community, and to help the people here we love so much. It was awesome!

I also went on exchanges with an awesome sister, Sister C! She's the one who had food poisoning on our last exchange. It was so fun teaching and serving with her! She's probably the most confident missionary I've ever met. She is amazing. The family they live with fed us sushi for the first time, and it was delicious! Haha, I was scared.... but they started me with the CA rolls that are just crab? And they were pretty good... and then I tried one wrapped in avacado, it was delicious... and then they gave me one wrapped in raw salmon!! I thought to myself, I don't know about this! But I tried it, and it was actually delicious!!! So, funny story, I found out that I actually really like sushi! It was fun to try that! :)

It's been a pretty good week. We have so much work. We are teaching tons of people, but nobody is really progressing yet. It was hard, because I'm doing my best to become a better teacher and improve as a missionary, but this Sunday nobody came to church :( We had one family and also A who were set on coming, but they didn't come :( So that was disappointing. But it's okay, we'll keep working hard and doing our best. Heavenly Father will bless us! And I am confident there are people out there who are prepared and waiting for us! We just need to find them!

Next week is transfers... I can't believe it's come so fast! So next Monday we'll see if I'm an STL, if I'm still here with Sis S... I hope I stay. I love South Phoenix so much. I have a feeling I might be leaving... and maybe training.. but that's probably wishful thinking haha. We'll see what happens!

Well, I love you guys! Thanks so much for everything. If you could pray for A, and that her husand - J - that his heart would be softened, that would help alot. She didn't come to church because he was going to drive her, but they had a fight about it that morning :( So I think he might not like the idea of her coming. :( He's going through a lot of stress right now though. Also, if you could just pray that we find the people we need to who are prepared. 

Thanks so much for everything! I love you! :) I got a letter from Dexter and Britt, and it made me soooo happy!! It meant a lot to me.

Well, off to apply for colleges... wish me luck! Eeek, this is sooo weird! I wish I could stay a missionary forever. I love it. I know without a doubt this really is Heavenly Father's work. I know He loves us personally, and guides our lives. :) I love you guys!

love,

Sister Whitney Morris

Cool graffiti pics! on p day! (taken on my ipad... so grateful I can still take pics somehow and send them home. We can take them on our ipad, email them to ourselves, and delete them immediately. But I'm going to try and see if I can get a camera so I don't have to use the Lord's hastening device)

 

Me in a clean alleyway!

 

We got raspados!

 

 

Basically shaved ice, a scoop of ice cream, sugared fruit (mangoes, strawberries, walnuts, ect) on top, then lechera (or sweetened condensed milk). It's delicious!!