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Dear Family,
So that was a depressing lesson.... the theme this week has been teaching people with a Baptist background. T, M, and two young men we're teaching in the UK now on facebook. It's been really hard, for some reason. Everyone we've taught has had some sort of doctrinal concern or came across anti material in the past. It's been really hard because when they start talking about it, the Spirit just leaves. I've just felt so inadequate because I feel like I'm doing my best to help resolve their concerns, but some of them are so deep or are confusing. We had another crazy lesson with T this week. We brought this INCREDIBLE member - a woman who is so strong in the gospel, returned missionary, former RS president, she's amazing - and she knows alot about the gospel. Well, we walked in to T, and the first thing she did was pull out her Bible to show us a scripture. I was so scared that she was going to drop us too.... she pulled out the scripture in Matthew where Christ says there are none given in marriage in heaven. That is her main concern, that we believe in eternal marriage. Well, our member is very knowledgable about the scriptures, so she started talking with her about it, but T kind of got offended and started getting really worked up. There was just a lot of contention.... Sister S and I were sitting there, praying and trying to know what to do. Finally, we just turned to T in a pause of the conversation and asked "T, have you been able to read from the Book of Mormon?" The entire atmosphere of the lesson completely changed. T became silent, and just told us "No, I haven't". We then testified and told her, "T, you will never know it is true if you never read it". We then testified of the Book of Mormon, and how if we know it's true, we can know that the other doctrines of the church are true. The atmosphere completely changed, the Spirit came back, and at the end of the lesson she committed for sure to start reading it. We will see what happens when we go back, but she came to church Sunday again! So that's a good sign! I really love her, she's a funny and awesome lady. I really hope she can recieve her answer.
Congratulations Dad!!! Ward Mission Leader!!!! That is fantastic!!! Best calling ever!!! Haha, seriously that is sooo cool!!! You guys are such awesome examples in missionary work :) What exactly are social media splits, by the way? What sort of things to they focus on in the Baltimore mission? It's interesting to hear similarities and differences to the areas :) ! I'm glad you've been able to spend more time with each other since the holidays! And I loved hearing about the boys and their pancakes haha. That's too bad about Dexter's car... I'm so grateful to have the red mustang. I'm really excited about him joining the Navy! That will be incredible if that's what he chooses to do! I am so proud of him. That was funny hearing about Randi's tips.... hahaha, good old Shaffers. We had pork bbq the other day, and it didn't taste nearly the same as that southern virginia bbq.... it was funny. :) I did get the Cmas package from the Woodstock ward, and I LOVED it!! Thank you so much, to them!! The pj pants are especially sooo comfy... their made out of that fuzzy soft blanket material. And the super cute journal and everything... it was wonderful. Thank you so much :) I'm happy to hear the applications are getting started this week! If I can help with anything, please send what I need to do! I would love to start school in the fall and not have to wait, if at all possible... so George Mason and BYU applications, here we come. Thank you soooo much for your help. Dad, especially with your new calling! Mommy, I loved hearing about how you feel with Mary and Martha! I am seriously exactly like you in that aspect, haha :D Thanks for the awesome emails! And glad Isaac got home safe from the dance! :) I love you guys!!!
I was asked in an email when was the last time I laughed with my companion, so I wanted to send you the answer too :)
I think the last time I laughed with my companion was.... hm.... I think it was sometime last night. We laugh fairly often, but I think we could find more things to be happy about. We laughed about one of the members in our ward, who is an incredible, wonderful man, but in his testimony he usually shares false doctrine... we laugh about the pigeons, haha. One time there was a whole flock of pigeons looking over the edge of a building, and we joked about how one of them must have been really fat and had fallen off the edge, and they were all looking down at him. Sister S is really good about thinking positively and finding things to be happy or laugh about. I could definitely be better at that. :) I am far too serious sometimes, haha. I'm glad she's more of a goofball! We also laugh a lot with the elders who serve in our ward. They are hilarious! Elder J is a happy go lucky, always smiling missionary, and Elder M is a jokester. They have literally all of the Bible video's memorized, and they quote them and use them in everyday conversation... like they'll say "Be careful therefore, lest ye be overstuffed at dinner!" Hahaha, that kind of thing. So that's always funny! We also laughed yesterday about this band that was super loudly practicing.... the neighborhoods here are fairly.... sketchy... we'll just say hearing gunshots is a normal occurence haha. So I sent home a video of the band we walked by the other day. :) I'll keep better track of things we laugh about! I think that will help me be more light hearted. Thanks for the reminder. That was a great question! How about you guys? When was the last time you laughed, and why? How do you stay light hearted?
Well, Happy New Years!!! As for us, this week was pretty crazy. I'm glad we talked about these happy things, because we had some hard things happen this week. First of all, M and D dropped us :( It was sooooo sad.... we walked in, and there was just this darkness in her house. There wasn't as much light in her face as usual. She told us that she didn't want to study anymore, because she had been doing "research" online (she even called it anti material) and she felt confused and yucky about everything. It was so, so sad. We tried so hard to bring the Spirit in, and just to testify and help her understand that she needs to study from the source, but she didn't change her mind about anything. It was sooooo sad. She was as sad as we were, saying goodbye. Her main concerns were basically that we can become like God, and also lots of things about Joseph Smith. She had been feeding her mind with lots of darkness, and things that weren't true or that were totally twisted. It was so, so sad. But we just testified of the truthfulness of the message, the importance of the Spirit, and expressed our love for her, and just let her know we still love her. The member we came with was perfect, she continued to be her friend and even planned to go serve at the bishop's storehouse with her. It was a really depressing lesson, but I think it ended on a good note. It is the worst when investigators get anti-ed. I hope she remembers how she felt when we taught her the lessons, because we know she felt the Spirit, she felt the goodness and peace and light that comes from the gospel. The darkness she put herself in just squashed it out. But hopefully someday she will come back and want to learn more. We sure hope so!
So that was a depressing lesson.... the theme this week has been teaching people with a Baptist background. T, M, and two young men we're teaching in the UK now on facebook. It's been really hard, for some reason. Everyone we've taught has had some sort of doctrinal concern or came across anti material in the past. It's been really hard because when they start talking about it, the Spirit just leaves. I've just felt so inadequate because I feel like I'm doing my best to help resolve their concerns, but some of them are so deep or are confusing. We had another crazy lesson with T this week. We brought this INCREDIBLE member - a woman who is so strong in the gospel, returned missionary, former RS president, she's amazing - and she knows alot about the gospel. Well, we walked in to T, and the first thing she did was pull out her Bible to show us a scripture. I was so scared that she was going to drop us too.... she pulled out the scripture in Matthew where Christ says there are none given in marriage in heaven. That is her main concern, that we believe in eternal marriage. Well, our member is very knowledgable about the scriptures, so she started talking with her about it, but T kind of got offended and started getting really worked up. There was just a lot of contention.... Sister S and I were sitting there, praying and trying to know what to do. Finally, we just turned to T in a pause of the conversation and asked "T, have you been able to read from the Book of Mormon?" The entire atmosphere of the lesson completely changed. T became silent, and just told us "No, I haven't". We then testified and told her, "T, you will never know it is true if you never read it". We then testified of the Book of Mormon, and how if we know it's true, we can know that the other doctrines of the church are true. The atmosphere completely changed, the Spirit came back, and at the end of the lesson she committed for sure to start reading it. We will see what happens when we go back, but she came to church Sunday again! So that's a good sign! I really love her, she's a funny and awesome lady. I really hope she can recieve her answer.
We also had a really cool experience teaching S J. She also has a Baptist background. You would think we were serving in the South! Anyhow, it's been amazing to teach her, because she told us she is comfortable where she's at in her church, but she is open to God's will. We taught her the Restoration a while ago, and it was AMAZING, but it started to overwhelm her. It was amazing to see, because she felt overwhelmed because she understands it! She understands what we are teaching, and what it would mean to her if it's true, which is why I think it scares her a little bit. Most people, like T for instance, don't completely understand what we are teaching... T believes Joseph Smith is a prophet, but she doesn't understand what that means. She believes any person inspired by God is a prophet. So it's interesting to have that struggle, to try and help them understand... but S understands, and she is still so open. We are taking it a little slow with her, so she doesn't get overwhelmed, but this week we had a lesson with her about the Book of Mormon. She didn't understand why it was necessary when we already have the Bible, but we talked about it being another witness of Christ - out of the mouth of two or three witnesses, ect - and she knows SO much about the Bible and the tribes of Israel, that we could share the scripture in Ezekiel with her about the sticks of Judah and Ephraim, and she understood it! It was incredible! We read some with her, and she became so passionate about what she was reading, and she totally understood it and applied it! It was incredible! She is an example to me of reading and studying the scriptures. It was such an amazing lesson! She's an incredible lady! So hopefully she continues to read and recieves her answer :) So that was a really cool lesson.
We have had so many miracles happen. We recieved a call on Friday from the mission office asking us to go visit a less active recent convert in our ward. We went by, and it turned out she had just been diagnosed with leukemia. She's so sweet, and we had an amazing lesson with her. She asked us where she was going to go after she dies, and we turned to Alma and read the scriptures about how the souls of the righteous will be in a state of rest, a state of peace, where they shall rest from all troubles and all care and sorrow. As she read that verse she just started crying. Afterwards she told us how heaven will be a happy place. It was such a powerful lesson.... she starts chemo next week. I hope and pray all goes well.
We had another cool miracle. We were out with this member, in these kind of sketchy apartments. We started walking up to what we thought was the right apt, but at the top we realized it was the wrong one. However there was a man sitting there, pretty old, smoking and drinking a beer. We started talking with him, and it turns out he sees missionaries every Monday at a park he goes to! They gave him a BOM, he's been reading it, and he believes it, and thinks its inredible that Christ visited the people here! It was such a cool street contact!!! We are definitely going to go back. After we went back to our car, our member told us how when we first started talking to him, she thought "oh, no no no... we need to go.... let's not talk to him." Because it is kind of a sketchy place. But it was 10 am, daylight, in the morning, we were fine. But she said how after he told us what he liked about the BOM, she realized that it was an absolute miracle we talked with him, and she said it was an experience that helped her to remember that we should never judge. It was so cool! It was a miraculous street contact in more ways then one. I love when members have spiritual experiences when they come with us. It's such a huge blessing. They always strengthen me and my testimony as well.
We tried to have exchanges this week.... but the sister who I went with ended up having food poisoning :( So she was throwing up all night. It was so sad! So we are going to do exchanges this week instead, and we ended them early. She is an awesome sister, Sister C! I served with her in Maricopa, Gilbert, and now here! She's awesome!
We also had another super cool miracle! We have seriously had so many this week - the Lord's hand is so intertwined in this work. It is absolutely undeniable. But at church a member told us to go by this less active lady, he said he felt prompted to have us go see her. So we did later that evening. It turned out the night before, she had told her daughter she was going to go to church. She ended up not going, but we went by and had an incredible conversation with her. She is native american and had many heartbreaking stories to tell us, but she told us how she came into the gospel, and it was just such an amazing lesson. She is going to start coming to church next Sunday! And, we had a member with us, and it turned out the member's husband is her home teacher!! We didn't even know! That was truly a miracle.
I think that's about it for this week! There are so many stories to tell, but no time :) I just know this gospel is true, and I know the Lord guides this work. I love the people here. I love my companion, so much. I've been having a hard time, being stressed about things. I'm learning to be patient. I think it's preparing me to have kids and a husband, haha.
We have a few cool things to tell! Our mission is doing a 5k in the spring!! :) So we get to train for that! Sister S has an AMAZING new cd called "Redeemer" by the Nashville Tribute band. Katharine, those are seriously such good missionary cds. They are awesome! We also had a funny experience.
One night we knocked on L's door. We felt a bit creeped out, it's in a
sketchy neighborhood, and there were dark figures hanging around. We
ran to knock her door real quick, she didn't answer so we were on our
way back to our car. A truck shined its brights at us, and we both
thought a door was opening and we were panicking! But a guy rolled
down his window and said "You speak Spanish?" In a thick accent, and
in a tone like he was trying to hit on us. We said no! And he said,
"Oh, well, fine then!" All offended, haha. It was soo funny.... And also
scary... It's hard to describe it, maybe you had to be there. It was
funny. :)
sketchy neighborhood, and there were dark figures hanging around. We
ran to knock her door real quick, she didn't answer so we were on our
way back to our car. A truck shined its brights at us, and we both
thought a door was opening and we were panicking! But a guy rolled
down his window and said "You speak Spanish?" In a thick accent, and
in a tone like he was trying to hit on us. We said no! And he said,
"Oh, well, fine then!" All offended, haha. It was soo funny.... And also
scary... It's hard to describe it, maybe you had to be there. It was
funny. :)
Also we tried knocking L's' door but he wasn't there. They have a ton of orange. lemon, and grapefruit trees in their front yard. We got back in the car to see where to go next, and this random man walks into their yard, picks a ton of their fruit - in his armpits, shirt, pockets, everywhere! And then he just walks away with it! He totally just walked up and stole their fruit, while we were sitting there hahaha. It was so crazy!!!
Well, I love you guys! Missions are the best. Happy New Years :) Can't wait to hear from you next week! Oh and you can still write letters to the 208 W Darrow address if you feel so inclined! :) Love you!
love,
Sister Whitney Morris
Haha so this is hilarious... At sis G's house, bro G is our WML. Their soooo awesome! S and R and their kids came, and sis G's kids, and the elders. Our gingerbread house is the third one from the left. The elders.... Hahaha theirs is the house that looks like it was in a tornado on the far left. They had major struggles! It was so funny! Elder J and M are hilarious - and fun story! They may look familiar because we were all in the same district in the MTC! Woot woot!
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