Dear Family,
Thanks for the emails!! :) I'm so proud of Dexter!! He is such a hard worker. It was really sad to hear about Isaac's situation. :( Gosh, I know how he feels! I'll never forget when my best friend kissed the guy I was head over heels for for over a year. I hope he always remembers that somewhere out there is an INCREDIBLE gorgeous loyal spiritual babe waiting for him... Haha, but he can just forget about that for now, because missions are way better anyways ;) That's so crazy it's snowing there right now!! Here in Arizona it's literally like 75 degrees right now... We are sitting in our car, windows down, enjoying the breeze and sunny day and it's a little hot haha. All the libraries are closed so we have to email on our iPads today :)
I loved seeing the pictures of the new pig!! Haha it looks so funny! Oh, and we got our mail key, and I got the valentines package!! Thank you so much!! The treats and everything were delicious :)
Thanks so much for workings the art portfolio and application!! I really appreciate it sooo much. :) I'm so excited to see what happens. I also loved hearing about dads experiences with the missionaries in his email. I'm glad you all have such awesome sisters and elders in the ward!
As for us, this week has been a great one! So much has happened! I don't even know where to start. We found a few people who want to start preparing for baptism. One is named R. He is soo cool! He's a young dad, divorced, who has a rough past but wants to change his life. He's been reading the BOM and is in alma already! We taught him the restoration, and it was really powerful. He talks a lot, so we mainly asked him the baptismal interview questions, and focused on the restoration of the gospel and the priesthood through the prophet joseph smith. It was so powerful! People say the most amazing things, often I wished I had a little pocket recorder so I could remember everything they say. He wants to be baptized, but he needs to quit smoking first. If you could pray for him, that would be awesome! He is aiming for March 7th, we'll see what happens though! He was really excited to pick a date to prepare for. It's been so powerful to see him gain a testimony of the Book of Mormon and the prophet Joseph Smith. He seems really solid, but he also needs to come to church.... I think that's the hardest commitment for people to keep sometimes.
We also taught a lady named S who is SO prepared!! She is the lady whose our members daughters mother in law, who we had dinner with. She called the member, asked to meet with us, and we also taught her the restoration this week! It was soooo powerful!!! Sister S and I have been doing role plays where we teach the entire lesson is less then 60 seconds. It's helped us become much more simple, powerful teachers. The spirit was in the lesson so strongly.... She seemed to understand it, and at the end when we invited her to be baptized, it was so powerful! We asked, "Will you follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized by someone holding the authority from God?" She got this amazing look on her face and said "Yes". The spirit was SOOO strong, and we asked "S, how do you feel right now?" Her face was just lit up and she simply said "warm." It was so powerful!! It was such an amazing lesson! So she is also preparing for baptism, in May so her son can be there. We just need to help her transition to her ward in Tempe now. We just taught her because her member family invited her to their house to have the discussions. It was sooo powerful :)
We went on exchanges this week and that was super fun!! I LOVE Sister C, she is so funny!! And she is such a powerful missionary. We taught the funniest man in the morning... His name was R. He's an old Native American man. So he started by telling us about his book he's writing... Haha it was really... Gruesome. Apparently it's about these Indian women who sold themselves to the conquistadors, and the conquistadors killed them, so then the tribes came and killed the conquistadors and hid them in the mtns, and hundreds of years later some medicine men went into the mtns to get evil away from it and they disappeared and were never found again. At first I thought he was telling a true story, and then I realized he was talking about his book haha. He talked so much! But we started teaching him about the Book of Mormon. And that was sooo powerful!! We taught him that Christ came to the Americas, and that he healed and visited the people here, and his face was completely enraptured. He said "of all the things we talk about today, that's what I'm going to remember. I want to study more about this." It was sooo cool! And very powerful! The Spirit was so strong. Then sister C asked him when he felt gods love. He started telling this sweet experience he had, where his mom had taught him to be kind with animals, and what a huge impact that lecture on kindness made in his life. It was the sweetest story, and all our hearts were kind of warm and fuzzy, you know. And then he said "aha! That's how I'll start my book!" We were thinking the sweet story, and we all said, oooh, that would be sweet!" And then he said, "yeah! The saintly, kind woman, killed by the conquistadors! That would be the perfect contrast between good and evil!" Hahaha it was soooo funny!! We all almost started laughing, but we kept it in hahaha. It was so funny.... Oh, R. He is a funny one! But we are excited for him to read the BOM! :)
We also taught a lady named S who is SO prepared!! She is the lady whose our members daughters mother in law, who we had dinner with. She called the member, asked to meet with us, and we also taught her the restoration this week! It was soooo powerful!!! Sister S and I have been doing role plays where we teach the entire lesson is less then 60 seconds. It's helped us become much more simple, powerful teachers. The spirit was in the lesson so strongly.... She seemed to understand it, and at the end when we invited her to be baptized, it was so powerful! We asked, "Will you follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized by someone holding the authority from God?" She got this amazing look on her face and said "Yes". The spirit was SOOO strong, and we asked "S, how do you feel right now?" Her face was just lit up and she simply said "warm." It was so powerful!! It was such an amazing lesson! So she is also preparing for baptism, in May so her son can be there. We just need to help her transition to her ward in Tempe now. We just taught her because her member family invited her to their house to have the discussions. It was sooo powerful :)
We went on exchanges this week and that was super fun!! I LOVE Sister C, she is so funny!! And she is such a powerful missionary. We taught the funniest man in the morning... His name was R. He's an old Native American man. So he started by telling us about his book he's writing... Haha it was really... Gruesome. Apparently it's about these Indian women who sold themselves to the conquistadors, and the conquistadors killed them, so then the tribes came and killed the conquistadors and hid them in the mtns, and hundreds of years later some medicine men went into the mtns to get evil away from it and they disappeared and were never found again. At first I thought he was telling a true story, and then I realized he was talking about his book haha. He talked so much! But we started teaching him about the Book of Mormon. And that was sooo powerful!! We taught him that Christ came to the Americas, and that he healed and visited the people here, and his face was completely enraptured. He said "of all the things we talk about today, that's what I'm going to remember. I want to study more about this." It was sooo cool! And very powerful! The Spirit was so strong. Then sister C asked him when he felt gods love. He started telling this sweet experience he had, where his mom had taught him to be kind with animals, and what a huge impact that lecture on kindness made in his life. It was the sweetest story, and all our hearts were kind of warm and fuzzy, you know. And then he said "aha! That's how I'll start my book!" We were thinking the sweet story, and we all said, oooh, that would be sweet!" And then he said, "yeah! The saintly, kind woman, killed by the conquistadors! That would be the perfect contrast between good and evil!" Hahaha it was soooo funny!! We all almost started laughing, but we kept it in hahaha. It was so funny.... Oh, R. He is a funny one! But we are excited for him to read the BOM! :)
It was so funny, we went with this awesome member who is type 1 diabetic, the oldest of 9 kids, and her birthday is in March! Needless to say, we got a good laugh about how we might as well be twins! She took us to smashburger and they had such delicious burgers.... Big juicy burger with guacamole and tomatoes and apple smoked bacon. It was so delicious :) haha. It was a fun day! We taught some good lessons. We also stopped a street vendor, and I ate one of the mangoes they sell!! Oh my goodness, they are the most delicious things!! They take a mango, peel it real expertly with a potato peeler, put it on a stick, spray it with lemon juice, slice it into what looks like a flower, and then drizzle chili syrup on it, all within 2 minutes. It is SO delicious!! :)
The theme of this week seemed to be street contacting... We literally try and talk with everyone we see! We have had so many funny and cool experiences! We were in some apts and one persons glass door was open, so sister s called out to them, they came outside, and we invited them to the easter pageant haha. Another time we taught a young man covered in tattoos, smoking marijuana, but he really liked talking with us and wanted to read the Book of Mormon. And then we talked with a lady yesterday who was just a little crazy haha, she kept saying she knew us and didnt really make sense in what she was saying. But it's okay, because we invited her to the Easter pageant anyways :)
N J is also doing great! It was weird, we got to her appt early, and we got there and she said she had been waiting for us for hours, and that she was going to bed.... So we rescheduled. But she came to church again Sunday, we dropped by her house beforehand to remind her, and she came! She got a brand new quad and she LOVES it. She was waiting to meet with the bishop, and she asked for stuff to read, so we gave her the lesson pamphlets. She read through all of them! She said she had been on date for baptism before, but she hadn't understood why she needed to be baptized again. But she read the pamphlet, and said it answered her question - that there was an apostasy, and all the different churches formed, and she needed to be baptized in the right one. It was so cool! She is definitely a character. She has been through sooo much in her life, it is heartbreaking. But she really wants to be baptized. So we'll be teaching her on Tuesday :)
That's all the highlights this week, basically! We also had zone mtg, and I trained on preparing for lessons in our studies. It was SO POWERFUL. I love the Book of Mormon, and I love this gospel, so much! I gave away my BOM I've been using on my mission to a less active man we are teaching. It was really hard, but I felt strongly prompted to, because he said he didn't have one... And his old one had his missionary's notes and things inside of it. So I gave him mine. Now I'm working on the 90 day challenge again, to read the BOM in 90 days, and it has been so, so powerful. I love the scriptures! And there was this cool parable that we used in our trainings, as well as a parable of Star Wars that the zone leaders wrote for their training haha. It was so fun! :)
Guys, I LOVE my mission. I know everything we teach is true. I know that the savior helps us become better people. I think I've made a lot of progress in becoming more patient this week. I love my companion, and I know when things get hard we can always work it out. I know the lord knows us perfectly, and that he answers our prayers.
I love you guys! Also, do you get the pics my camera sends? Hopefully you get them ok. My camera connects to wifi so it emails them to my email when it connects. It should send them to you today, too!
I love you guys! Oh, and happy birthday George Washington!!!! :)
Love,
Sister Whitney Morris
I always love your letters, and I think your incredible. :) I love you!
A girl named Y we are teaching, who came to FHE :) This is what happened when she took my iPad haha...
My camera connects to wifi... A member in our ward set it up so it should email pics to you, hopefully? Let me know if you don't get them today!
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