3-23-2015

Dear Family,

Thanks so much for the emails!! It was so fun to hear about the baby lambs being born, and Hannah's birthday, and how things are going at home with Dad's job and the kids and everything. I especially loved hearing about Adam's sweet love for the baby lambs, and how you related that to the Savior. That was just the sweetest story! It is such a powerful thing to work with our Good Shepherd to gather His lambs from every corner of the earth. He's going to be a great missionary someday. :)  Dad's new mustang looks sweet! I'm so excited to come home and have mine! Gosh, you guys spoil us. :) I'm glad Brittany could come down and spend the weekend! . We have the best family in the whole world!

That's great about Netanyahu! It was funny, in Sunday school the other day a lady brought him up.. I can't remember why, but she was basically saying "So he won't go to heaven even as awesome as he is?" and our teacher explained that if he repents and follows Christ he will. :) Haha it was just funny, it reminded me of ya'll! He's amazing!! I'm glad to hear he won office again!

That's so cool Dad's renting a bedroom by Mount Vernon! That will be amazing!! We will have to visit for sure!! I'm so glad things are going well at home. :) 

Well, It's been an awesome week for us! I love being back in Maryvale. I
feel like Heavenly Father has blessed me so much, allowing me to come
back to this area, and be with the companion I have. I love Sister
W SO much! We get along so well! I feel like I've had so many
companions that have taught me really important lessons, and have
helped me develop charity and patience (hopefully at least a little
bit. I've been working on it.) but I feel like Sister W is
teaching me more about what a good relationship is like - as weird as
that sounds, haha. We work really well together, and she is so
Christlike that when I'm with her I want to be a more Christlike
person. She's been helping me so much! And it's been really fun going
through training together and going back through the basic
fundamentals of missionary work.

The time is going so fast. I can't believe it's Monday again! We had
some really cool and funny experiences this week. L is doing great
:) He's such a funny, sweet old man. We went to his house to teach him
the word of wisdom for the first time. We walked into his house with
our member, and there he was, finishing a bottle of wine! He said,
"hold on sisters! Let me finish this before we start our lesson." And
then he downed the rest of the bottle hahaha. We were just both
thinking oh no.... This is a little awkward! But he actually took the
word of wisdom really well. He committed himself to live it, but we
went back again two days later and he said he doesn't understand why
we need to abstain from coffee. We just pulled it back to it being a
revelation from God through the prophet Joseph smith, and having the
faith to live the commandments, even if we don't always understand
why, or why me - I don't see why I need to. We talked about trusting God and not letting those
things get in the way of our obedience and love to Him. Hopefully it
helped! We have another lesson with him today, and definitely recieved some guidance during studies to help us address his concerns. It was such a powerful comp and personal study - I know Heavenly Father is guiding us to know how to help him. If you guys could pray that he will be able to gain a testimony of the Word of Wisdom, we would appreciate it! 

He did come to church Sunday, and he's aiming to be baptized
on April 7th - he's really excited. So we are hoping and praying that
we can help him understand and live the word of wisdom, so he can gain
a testimony of it. He believes Joseph Smith was a prophet, so that
will hopefully play a big factor.

We had another miracle! Did I tell you that L R - our recent
convert in south Phoenix who we helped quit smoking and is the
sweetest lady in the world - she moved to Maryvale like two months
ago! We were all worried about her, a member of the south mountain bishopric even
took her to her new ward the first Sunday she moved (South Mountain ward is SO awesome). Anyhow, we've
been teaching her the new member lessons! She's fallen off from going
to church a little because changing wards has been a hard transition
for her. But she's been strong on the commandments, and she still has
such a strong testimony of the gospel!! Yay!!! She's in alma 40 or so
in the Book of Mormon too! We taught her this week, and she came to
church Sunday!!! Yay!!! We helped her make some friends, and we are
really, really hoping she can find a network of friends and support in
the ward. That was an awesome blessing! I love L so much! She is
the sweetest!


We also did some really fun service at the st. Mary's food bank. Every
month our zone goes and helps them prepare meals, organize stuff, ect.
This week we organized around 15,000 lbs of food, to go to people who
are hungry this coming week. It really feels so good to do so much
service! It's definitely something I want to continue to do for the
rest of my life.

We've been having really, really awesome studies. I've been studying
the Book of Mormon and using a study journal every day, and it has
been such a powerful spiritual experience. I learn so, so much. Sister
W and I also have amazing comp studies too. A few days ago we
read through d&c 89 (the word of wisdom chapter) together, and just
picked it apart, learning the different meanings of words and thinking
and pondering about questions we had. It was soooo powerful! The
Spirit was so strong, and we both ended up actually learning a lot
about the temple and the Creation, which was so interesting and amazing. I have grown
to love the scriptures so much on my mission. It is incredible the
Spirit we feel when we ponder, study, and apply them in our lives.
I've been thinking about how to stay spiritually strong throughout
life, and something that keeps coming up is feasting on the words of
Christ, and keeping close to the word of God. In my scripture study,
in hymns we sing in sacrament meeting, in conversations and lessons,
it keeps coming up that when we study and ponder and keep a strong
testimony of the scriptures and words of living prophets, we won't
fall away or be led astray. That has hit me very powerfully this week.

Sister W and I also have really funny role plays :) She does the
funniest, most perfect impressions of people haha. There is a lady we
are teaching who has no teeth, but she likes to chew gum, so she
chomps very loudly during the lesson. She also has a short attention
span, so if we start rambling a little she just says "I think I'm done
now." We have to work to keep her attention! It's so funny though,
because I had forgotten those little details, until we did a role
play. I started teaching and Sister W just started chomping away,
and then I remembered, and it was just sooo funny haha. Not in a mean
way or anything, it was just so funny how accurate her imitation was
:) but we love J and we really love teaching her! She's a really
sweet lady too.

It's been really cool going by people we taught last year and seeing
them again. It's funny, most of them remember me! We went by a man
whose less active, whose uncle had died and so he had been drunk and
he proposed to us... But when he wasn't drunk, we had some good
lessons with him. He remembered us and he was a lot more positive and
open then he was last year, which was good.

It is going to be the best transfer!!! Sister W feels like one of my best friends. I am SO grateful for her. Every night after planning we always talk and laugh about different things that happened during the day... I love her so much! and I'm so grateful for the things that I've learned that have helped me keep our companionship happy, and not let my temper or contention disrupt the Spirit we feel and the happiness we have. We also had one other cool experience - we've been thinking of ways to make our days more spiritual. We decided to begin and end each day with a hymn (we had read the intro to the hymbook during sacrament meeting, and it was sooo powerful!) So last night we ended by singing "Abide with me, tis even' tide". It brought the Spirit so, so powerfully into our little study room. Us two sister missionaries, kneeling on the floor, after having planned our day and what we could do to help our investigators, we sang and pled with our Heavenly Father to continue to be with us. We read the scripture with the hymn as well, and it's about the Savior -  how he walked with the apostles all day, and they must have enjoyed their time and conversation with Him so much. He was about to leave, but they pled with Him to stay, to abide with them that evening. And He did, He stayed. I love how the Savior had the love and the patience to serve and love the people. He took the time to truly get to know them and show His love for them. We also read the account where He washes His apostles feet. I love how He showed them to serve and love one another by His example. First He showed them, by serving them and loving them. After He was done, then He taught them the commandment to love one another. I think that shows the power of His leadership and His example. I want to be that kind of leader, that kind of parent one day. It has been so powerful.

I love the Savior, and I love this gospel. I know it's true, with all my heart. I love being a missionary. I love my companion, I love the people, and I am so happy!

I love you guys! Thanks for being such an awesome family. :) 

I love you!!

love,

Sister Whitney Morris

This picture of us laughing describes our companionship perfectly :D We are always laughing and happy! I love it!

 

 

a cute baby chicken at a member dinner

 

 

Soo i'm really sad, because the hilarious Mr. Beanish movie we took on accident is too big of a file to send home.... so, when I get home, be on the lookout for a hilarious, hilarious video we accidentally took of us. Yes, it involves the crocheted chicken pot holders a member gave us... hahahaha it is the funniest thing I've ever seen. I'm so sad it won't send! One day you will see it! In the meantime, here's other pics!

 

 

a member made us these hilarious crocheted pot holders. it's funny, she always gives them to new missionaries... last year she made me a green pot holder that I still have, but these are way cooler!

a terrifying cat!!! asleep next to me at Lori's house..... so scary.

Me & Sister W.

a super sketchy ice cream truck

 

 

 

us biking in the morning while on exchanges :) 

 

 

 

us eating dinner with sister f :) she's amazing! we ate at a place called garcias - a  mom and pop restaurant in phoenix that has DELICIOUS mexican food. We ate fried ice cream and carne asada tacos!!! my favorite!

 

 

us eating a little picnic before going to a meeting in tempe :) our old ward mission leader from last year and his wife drove us. They're so cute! They are in their late 60s, they've been touring the state doing tap dancing, and they gave us marriage advice on the way there! They got sealed in the temple last week! They are sooo sweet!

 

 

self explanatory :)

3-16-2015

Dear Family,

Thanks so much for the emails! Dad, first of all, I am SO sorry about your birthday! I have meant to send you a birthday card for the past two weeks, but with transfers we've had mixed up P days, so today is the real day we've had to write letters since two weeks ago. So I'm so sorry!!! But I love you and hope you had a Happy Birthday!!! And thank you SO much for handling all the college stuff for me!! I got the package you guys sent me, and I LOVED it!! Haha thank you so much!!! I especially loved the mustache pen and the Irish swag t shirt :D Did one of the boys wear that before you sent it? Haha because I put it on and it smelled like campfire :D It was a great reminder of home, I loved it haha!! Thank you so much!!  I'm glad E. is doing well. He is such an amazing convert! I hope things work out for the best with the struggles he's going through. I loved Dad's new mustang pic, and I'm super excited to have a car when I get home :) Thanks sooo much for the gift card for my birthday! Sorry I accidentally opened it haha. But Im super grateful, because when I get home I won't have anything! no cell phone, hardly any clothes, ect... so that money will help sooo much. Thank you :) The baby lamb is sooooo cute!! Mommy I love how sheep are your thing now, haha! Especially how you've always loved horses so much. I think getting a horse in the future that's more small and that everyone can ride is a really, really good idea. I can't believe how old Hannah and Katharine (And I!) are getting!! Ahh it is so crazy! I hope she has a fun birthday. :) There's nothing better on a birthday then just spending time with your family - except for serving a mission, of course!

Well, as for us, it's been an AWESOME week! You'll never guess where I'm sitting right now.... I got
transferred to Maryvale!!!! WOOOOOHOOOOO!!!! It has been one of the
happiest experiences of my life!! I stepped down from being a sister
training leader, which was kind of a relief. :) No more trainings, I
can just relax and enjoy learning from the meetings now, which I LOVE. And I was
asked to second half train a missionary!! So my new companion has been
out for 7 weeks. Her name is Sister W and I LOVE her! She is the
sweetest, most gentle and positive person I have ever met. She always
has a positive spin about everything, she has such a strong testimony,
and she is really funny too! She has a really cute sense of humor. So
I am so happy to be her companion! I was nervous to train, but as we've started serving together I
honestly feel like she's training me. She came out pre-trained. She's an awesome teacher, and I forget that she's only been out a few weeks. She is sooo awesome!  I am
really excited for this transfer :)

It was sad to leave south Phoenix. I think south mountain ward is the
one I've most loved serving with. I love and miss Bishop and Sister
A, Brother T, and Brother and Sister G. But I am so
happy to be in Maryvale! It's been one of the happiest experiences of
my life, reuniting with the people I loved, served with, taught, and
baptized here :) our first night we got to go see K and J!!!
Their the two sisters sister D and I taught and baptized last May
here! That was sooooo awesome!!!! They are both doing so well - their
active in church, K serves as a young women's leader so she's with
J in young women's, and K is going to byu Idaho this fall!
Her testimony is so strong, and they are just doing soooo awesome.
K is even rooming with sister D there, and I am so excited for
them. :) that was such a sweet reunion! They even made me a welcome
back poster with really sweet notes on it. It was so cute! It's been so special, because I remember in the MTC there was a general authority who talked about how we would be somebody's missionary. All missionaries are special, but the missionaries who first taught you or who you had that first friendship with are sooo special. It's such a sacred blessing to be someone's missionary, and I am SO grateful Heavenly Father gave me that opportunity for K and J, and it really is such a sacred privilege to live up to that, and to continue to be faithful and live the gospel for the rest of my life. 

It's so fun, everywhere we go I have all these fun and awesome
memories. Sister w is an awesome listener, I tell her all kinds of stories every day haha, and I love listening to her too when she shares stories. We did a lot of service this week! I'll write more about that later! But first of all before we left south Phoenix, we taught R one
last time. It was so awesome!! He had an experience last week when he
was in the hospital. He was going through some rough illness, and he
was so down that he just prayed very deeply, with all his heart. When
he was praying, he told us that he received a witness that the bom is
true and that Joseph smith was a prophet. His heart had completely
changed. He said he needed to make God the first priority in his life,
and he said he would come to church this Sunday and do everything he
could to be baptized. It was crazy though because he was going to find
out if he had to go to jail the next day (he had been pulled over
driving on a suspended license, and he's had a rough past). So we
called him the next morning, shared a scripture, and gave him some
encouragement. He brought his bom with him just in case he went to
jail, so he could still read it. But they didn't send him there!!! He
was sooo happy because it meant he could go to church! He is also
preparing for baptism on April 18th. It was such an honor to teach
him. He has a reallyyy rough past, he's never done anything super bad,
but he used to have a reputation in the neighborhood for dealing drugs
and being a gang leader and stuff. So he's going to have to go through
a lengthier interview process. But I am so, so excited and happy for
him. The day we taught him, we shared a video called "lifting burdens"
where the apostles and prophet share their testimony of Christ.
Afterwards, R just started crying. He shared the most powerful
testimony of Christ I have ever heard - so, so humble, and so full of
heartfelt gratitude for his savior, who had helped him through so much
and could forgive him of his sins. It was the most powerful testimony
I've ever heard.... It really strengthened my faith in the atonement
and the power of Christ's sacrifice for us. It was so, so powerful!
I'm so excited for him to be baptized!

It was so fun coming to Maryvale. L, the lady we baptized in south
Phoenix, she had actually moved to the Maryvale ward a while ago, and
brother Torres and bishop Allen were really worried about her. But my
second day in Maryvale we went to go see her, and she was sooo happy
to see us too! It was so awesome!! The sweetest reunions of my life.
:)

We had a stake bbq this Saturday, which was super fun. It's funny - I
went to it last year too, my first week in Maryvale last year! I love
serving in this stake. I'll have served at least 6 transfers in the
Phoenix stake - which is about 9 or 10 months I think? I am SO
grateful! It is such a special area. We did service this week too, we
helped a lady move into some sketchy apts. she's a single mom of 7
kids and she's moving into a tiny one bedroom apartment :( she's
actually an investigator. Their sketchy apartments too, all those odd
smells from people not living the wow and last year it's where one
intoxicated man started yelling at us that Joseph smith wasn't a
prophet. It makes me so sad to see the circumstances some People live
in :(

We are teaching an old man named L who is SO cute!! He's an older Navy veteran whose wife passed away a year ago. His family are members, and they referred him. He's been learning for a few months, and he wants to be baptized!!! He is the cutest man! I love him! He came to the stake BBQ and we got to know him and talk with him. Apparently he loves chickens, and has them trained to crow when he tells them to crow haha. He is very stubborn, but is also so sweet! We brought him to the mission president's fireside last night, and he almost started crying during the testimonies. It was sooooo powerful. K drove us all. It was so funny, afterwards we brought him up to meet President T. Pres T is over 7 feet tall, and Leo is about 5'3 hahaha, just the cutest little older gentleman. It was so sweet to see him shake President's hand, and it meant so much to Leo! His eyes crinkled up and he almost started crying when he shook his hand because Pres. T had shared an incredible testimony, and the Spirit was so strong. It was such an awesome experience!! I'll never forget that sweet handshake I saw :) 

I am just so happy right now. I don't know why Heavenly Father sent me here, but I do know it's been one of the happiest weeks of my entire life. I love my companion. I don't think I've gotten along with a companion so well since Sister R! And Sister D! I have learned SO much. Every day in personal studies, I'm really striving to develop patience and charity. So every morning I read a scripture from those sections in PMG and think of a specific way I can develop patience or charity that day. Being focused on that has made such a huge difference, in my happiness, in the love I feel for others, in the way I look at others and look at situations, and the way I handle difficulties or setbacks. I am so, so grateful for the gospel, and for the Spirit. Something I learned in personal study today is that the Spirit helps us be patient! When we feel the Spirit, it causes us to have joy, to be patient, to love others and seek to understand them and help them. We don't get overstressed or frustrated or offended easily. I hope I can continue to develop those Christlike attributes, even when life gets a little crazy.

It's going to be the best two transfers of my whole mission. :) I think I'll probably end up dying in Maryvale unless they transfer me next transfer. I'm happy wherever the Lord sends me, but I am so, SO grateful he sent me here!! I love the people of Phoenix so much. It is such an honor to serve here, and to serve them.

Well, I love you guys! I hope you have an awesome week! What has been some fun things happening at home? :) I love hearing your stories, and your experiences, the things you learn, and the pictures!!! I love you guys so much! And I am excited to see you again soon. I'm so happy in my area now that I don't even think about going home, it's awesome. But I love you guys and hope you have an awesome week. :)

love,

Sister Whitney Morris

Me and Sister D and K at the MPD!!! I LOVE these ladies!!! One year ago, Sister D and I knocked on K's door for the first time - both of us greenies, fresh on the mission field. It was so, so awesome to see them both again, together. One of the sweetest experiences of my entire life. I can't even describe the joy :) I love them so much!

 

 

Reunion with L :)

 

 

 

Us and L at the mission president's fireside! He is soooo sweet!

 

  

They made me a poster :)

 

 

Reunion with K and J, and my AWESOME companion!!! :D Sweetest moment ever!

 

And group selfie during service! We share our ward with two sets of elders! There are officially 1200 names in the ward, and only 200ish or less come to church. So there is a  TON of work to do!

 

  

Peace out, South Phoenix! I'm going to miss it there!

 

 

 

Our district in south phoenix :) I LOVE and miss these missionaries!!!! Probably my most favorite district in my whole mission! We got super close!

 

 

A hilarious chihauhua sighting.... (notice the signs). yes, it was barking at us.

 

  

The cutest kid ever :) He walked in holding these two puppies and I had to take a picture!! He's the son of a wonderful member in the south phoenix south mountain ward!

 

 

Saying goodbye to R. He is such an awesome man! I'm so excited for his baptism on April 18th! I hope I get to go to that one too. He has such a powerful testimony of Christ, and of the Book of Mormon now!

 

 

3-9-2015

Dear Family,

I loved getting your emails!! I especially loved the pictures of Hannah giving the piglets a bath, and the pics of Jacob as a red lobster!!! Haha, those were hilarious! All the boys are looking soooo tall and old. It's so weird! I was so happy to hear about E's missionary work!!! Wow!!! It makes me so, so happy to see how his new convert fire is still burning bright. He is such an amazing man! I would LOVE to go down with you guys to be with him when he gets endowed, if he's okay with it. :) I loved the diabetes paragraph!!! Holy cow, that is sooooo true!!! Diabetes doctors that I've had have been super judgemental and just mean. There have been a few awesome ones, but a lot of really mean ones who make you feel like you're doing a terrible job. I love how that person let them know how they felt, and told them to not be judgemental. I'm totally going to do that if I get a mean one when I go home! Thanks so much for setting up that apt when you get the health insurance figured out :) I appreciate it! One kind of around DC would probably be best, or one that's close to home!

We received some super cool training this week about using online proselyting from a member of the 70 that I'll write more about later, but one thing he said was to not post negative things about other people. Don't post negativity!!! Post truth, but don't post negativity. I just absolutely loved that. It reminded me of a scripture I read this morning, where Nephi talked about how he shared the plainness of the truth, and the people who had the "spirit of the devil" were the ones who got angry about it. Sometimes truth is hard to hear, but if we are humble and seeking Christ, we will have an attitude that wants to change. We won't get angry or contentious about things. Anyways, he also shared Moroni 7 and talked about sharing goodness, that sharing goodness comes from Christ. I loved that. It reminded me of what you guys have been going through.

I'm so happy it's getting warmer there too! It always makes me smile, here it's in the 80s every day already.... they said it would be in the 90s by next Friday. Everyone's guess is when it will hit 100 - usually it's April or May. It's going to be a big shock coming home :) 

It's been an awesome week! I still don't know if I'm getting transferred, we'll find out either Tuesday or Wednesday. Their switching it up so our p day is in transfer day - Thursday - which makes for kind of a long week, but it's alright! We still get time to email today. 

It has been an awesome week though!

 My favorite part was the technology meeting with Elder PM, of the 70. He is AMAZING. He's from Sweden, so it was fun to hear his accent. He shared incredible spiritual training, and he was also very funny. One funny moment was we had some time for questions and answers. One elder asked if the first presidency is leaning towards us using paper scriptures or electronic scriptures. Elder M looked at him and said, "The Brethren will no sooner answer that question then they will tell you what to eat for breakfast." Haha it was so funny, he said it with a smile, but I felt a little bad for the elder. He gave the most amazing training. The test period for the iPads is officially over, so the church has taken everything they've learned from this experiment and formed a training plan. The training plan takes about 12 weeks,  but the mission president only moves his mission forward to the next step once he feels they've mastered the step their on. So the first step is using it in studies and in lessons, the second step is using it to plan and set goals ( basically using area book), and the last step is online proselyting. So it will probably be 2-3 months before we use Facebook or Skype again. We messaged our investigators online and put them in a chat with a member who could continue to talk with them, and we gave them our myldsmail emails so they can email us. It's a big change, but honestly I haven't felt too big of a difference! 

The meeting was soooo incredible. A few of my favorite things I learned was first, about agency. He talked a lot about how we are free to choose. The closer we are to truth, the more free we are to choose. The further we are from truth, the more our agency is limited. This was interesting - it reminded me of a talk president uchtdorf gave where he talked about a professor who wrote this paper that basically said we don't make choices - our choices are predetermined from our genetics. He talked about how this obviously wasn't true - all of us are free to choose. But I thought that was very interesting. 

He also gave us three equations that I loved. The first is I + God = OK. He taught us that to be close to God, we need to have the spirit with us. That means we need to repent quickly and be baggage free so we can have a close, constant with our Heavenly Father, and always have the spirit with us. The second was + ♥️= OK. (Or mind plus heart equals ok.) He shared the scripture that says a house divided cannot stand. He said discrepancies between our heart and our mind weaken us. I took this to mean that they need to be united, or on the same page. That is SO hard to do sometimes! But I really loved that principle, and I can see how someone could gain so much confidence and strength if their mind and heart are aligned with each other, and are aligned with God.

The last formula was We Say = We Do. He talked about having integrity, and how trust cannot be bought - it can only be earned. He told us to build and be worthy of trust. He said if we do this, we will be missionaries with a high level of integrity. 

The last thing I really loved was he read Moroni 7:16-17. It says 

"16 For behold, the Spirit of Christ is given to every man, that he may know good from evil; wherefore, I show unto you the way to judge; for every thing which inviteth to do good, and to persuade to believe in Christ, is sent forth by the power and gift of Christ; wherefore ye may know with a perfect knowledge it is of God.

17 But whatsoever thing persuadeth men to do evil, and believe not in Christ, and deny him, and serve not God, then ye may know with a perfect knowledge it is of the devil; for after this manner doth the devil work, for he persuadeth no man to do good, no, not one; neither do his angels; neither do they who subject themselves unto him."

He then compared this in a way I had never thought of before. He taught us to have the self discipline to always seek out the positive and share good, true, positive success stories. He told us to eliminate negativism from our lives. He promised if we do, there would be a spirit of continuous improvement in our lives. I just loved this, and I'm striving to apply it in my life each day. Part of it that he applied to online proselyting was to never, ever post something unless you feel comfortable with the entire world seeing it, forever. Because things we post never disappear. He also taught us to not post negative things about others. This really made an impact on me. I'm sorry R hasn't learned these principles in her life. We're at different stages of growth, and I feel sad that she hasn't learned those lessons yet - to be kind and grateful.

It was such a powerful training! I love being with the seventies and with the apostles. It's the most amazing feeling. 

We also had some really good lessons this week! The work has been slowing down with investigators going out of town or dropping us. But we have one lady at church who has the cutest kids ever. Her niece just moved in with her, so we taught her the restoration this week. It went really well! She's a neat girl, very serious and smart and helps out her aunt a lot in the house. We helped them paint their house, and that was really fun. 

S's baptism was also this week! It was such an awesome baptism :) She asked me to speak about the Holy Ghost, which I felt like was such a great honor!!! It was such a spiritual baptism! Sister S and I got to go to her ward in Tempe and attend. S was simply beaming with happiness :) The best part was seeing her come up out of the waters of baptism, simply glowing with light and joy! It was soooo beautiful!!! She shared her testimony, and it was so, so powerful. I'm so grateful we could be there with her :) I love being a missionary!!!

Other then that, I forgot my journal, so I can't remember what else happened haha. The weeks are so busy and they fly by! I do have two more things to tell you - so first, I got accepted to BYU Provo!!! Yay!! To be honest I was really surprised, I've heard it's really hard to get into so I thought there would be no way I would get in. That's why I've never applied before :) So that was happy! I'm still seeking the Lord's guidance to make that decision... I think I'm just waiting to see if I get into the art and honors program to make my choice now. But I know Heavenly Father will guide me :) I've learned so much that has helped me know how to make the best choice. I was thinking, this may be a little harsh, but if someone asks to come to my homecoming talk, they need to bring a nonmember friend haha.

Well, as for me, I think that's it for this week :) So much always happens. This Thursday is transfers, so we'll see if I move or not! I love South Phoenix so much. I have been in Phoenix for half my mission now, and I have loved every minute of it. It's such a special area. Oh yeah, last thing! So yesterday the zone leaders and stl's had a stake meeting with our stake presidency. We have one once a month to talk about the work, how the missionaries can support the stake, how the stake can support the wards and missionaries in missionary work, ect. Well, yesterday they talked about family history work! I got to go on my family tree, and I downloaded some of the family stories of some of our ancestors to read during lunch. I found so many cool things!!! One was that one of our ancestors - one of Winnie Mounteer's grandsons I think? Was called to the Arizona Tempe Mission!!! He arrived in the MTC, and when he got there they told him his assignment had been reassigned to Spain! So he didn't actually come here, but he was called to my mission!! How cool is that?! It was really fun to read about her thoughts when Mommy was born, too :) And about Grandpa Mounteer's mission... I never knew he was an AP, and his mission president wrote a really cool letter about the difference he made in some of the cities in Chile. It was really cool to read!!

Well, I love you guys! Thanks for the package!! I'm excited to get it for my birthday. :) I love you all!! I'm so proud of Dexter too, and I hope things are going well with him and Brittany! I'm praying for you all, and I love you all. :)

love,

Sister Whitney Morris

S's baptism!!!! :D :D :D And that's Brother T! He's one of my favorite members! He's the second counselor in the south mtn ward bishopric. He feeds us delicious authentic mexican food all the time. His wife doesn't speak spanish, but he'll send her authentic recipes in spanish to make haha... he actually served his mission here too, a long time ago! We love him! He's hilarious and AWESOME! And S, of course! She is the sweetest person ever! I love her so much! :)

#southphoenixcar #weberollin'inthechurchparkinglot (haha)

I forgot to tell you, I got my trunky call on Friday! That means they called me and asked to verify info for my flight home information. They should be buying my ticket this week and sending the itinerary to you guys. Scary!!! I requested a day or so layover in SLC, but I don't know if they'll let me do that or not. That way I could just see Daddy and Mom and Katharine for a little bit on my way home. I don't know if they'll do it, and I know they'll want me to get released pretty soon. I don't know if you need to set up an appt with the stake president for that or if he'll contact you..... but yeah. just a heads up. :) 

3-2-2015

Dear Family,

Wow, it sounds like a lot is going on at home!! I loved seeing the pictures of the baby piglets! They are soooo cute!! :) I'm happy to hear that Dad got a job too, and even though it sounds like it will be a little hard, I'm happy that everyone has such a good attitude about it. I'll definitely pray him! Thanks for sending in my art portfolio! Not going to lie, I feel a little nervous living in on campus housing at GMU ;) I think if I did that, I would probably try and only do it for the first semester (I almost said transfer.... #missionlife) and then I would try to move in with some fellow YSA sisters in DC. We'll see what happens though. Haven't heard from BYU still... does George Mason have a deadline for acceptance? If so, what's the deadline for it? I'll do some praying today and just trust that Heavenly Father will lead me. :) I. Hopefully things work out okay, and that she'll be able to move into her own place! I hope she can learn to be grateful and see the good and everything you guys are doing for her. I'm excited for Dexter joining the marines!! He looked so handsome in his swearing in picture! I'm really happy for him, and it's a bit scary thinking what he could be doing now. Haha.

Also, great job in your play, Hannah!!! You looked beautiful, and that looked so fun! I'm so proud of you! :D And Jacob, yours is coming up soon too, right? That's so awesome!!! I loved hearing about the cool meetings and stake conference, too. That's one of the best parts of being involved in missionary work. :) 

I did have two questions for you guys - first, do you think you could set up a doctors appt (diabetes docter) in Virginia for me around the middle or end of June? I haven't been in a while, so I'll have to try and go asap when I get home. Don't worry, I'm in great health, everything is fine. :) I'll just need an appt! I forgot the last question, so hopefully I remember it by the end of this email, haha!

As for us, this week has been pretty good. We've been knocking a TON of doors, it seems like nobody has been home this week! R has been out of town all week, we haven't been able to contact W :( And Y was out of town too. So it was a slow, knocking doors week. But we still worked hard! We had zone conference and that was incredible!!! Pres. T is really focusing on having all of us become more powerful teachers and enhancing our teaching skills. He said we should be able to know every point in all the lessons in PMG inside and out, and when randomly called upon we should know a scripture or two we could share, and be able to teach it simply, briefly, and powerfully. In our next interviews with him he's going to have us randomly teach him a point in the lessons! I think I'm good on most of the lessons, but lesson 5 will definitely need some work. So that was exciting! We received very powerful training, especially in teaching with the Spirit. I love Preach My Gospel, and I love this work! We see God's hand in it every day.

 We also received training for online proselyting. Last week salt lake called 32 mission presidents in for training - the first time they've called them out since 1980 something when the footnoted scriptures first came out. I guess mission presidents aren't supposed to leave their mission, even if one of their children dies, so it was a big deal! The church has officially started the official ipad programs I guess, our test run is over. So they formed some new handbooks, including a 12 week training for new missionaries of not only how to be a missionary, but also a whole new training book on using online. Their making huge changes and it's so exciting! It was so funny - when the church first gave us iPads, they basically said "here, missionaries! Use facebook!" And we were just like "..... Okay!" with not having any clue in what to do with it, haha. So it has been an interesting journey, learning the ropes as a mission. We have been the test run, and a lot of things have changed since we first got them. Now their providing us with official training. New missionaries won't even use facebook right away! It will be in their like 10th week of training that they'll be able to start chatting and posting! Anyways, this Wednesday our mission is gathering to receive more training from a general authority and some people from the missionary department on how to use iPads and facebook. We are really excited! We are also all getting brand new iPads. We think it's because all the missionaries have to buy their own, so they want it to be fair and everyone to have a new one. The church has bought so many that they now have their own Apple outlet that they buy the iPads from.... That way they just put on all the needed filters. Crazy, huh? Probably also so they can have the different costs for different missions and everything. It's amazing how the Lord has blessed and trusted us with these tools to help the work hasten. It's really amazing though, because that really is all the iPad and Facebook is - just a tool. President T really focused on the fact that we aren't a iPad mission, we are a PMG and scriptures mission. I really liked that, because it's true! It was a very powerful training.

President T also gave us some funny dating advice for when we go home! One big change is we won't have iPad checks anymore - we will have iPad audits, weekly, with our companions. So one day a week we'll trade iPads and check them, make sure that nothing fishy is going on. President T talked about always having safety - keeping your companion safe from the evils of the Internet. He said this is training us for our future lives. Imagine having total transparency on the Internet with your spouse. He told us that if we are dating someone, we need to tell them "if we get married, I will be auditing your cell phone, Internet, email, etc. sometimes. Are you okay with that? Also knowing each others passwords?" President then said, "if they say that's not okay, that those things are private, turn around and run away, 100 mph if you need to!" I LOVED that! And I am definitely going to do that! In his training in slc, the apostles talked to the mission presidents about how we aren't going to be on the defensive anymore about the evil tide of pornography and everything on the Internet. Just think - 80,000 missionaries, every 2 years, learning how to use the Internet properly, flooding the earth with goodness, and knowing how to protect themselves and their families from evil. We're not just defending ourselves anymore, were fighting back :) How powerful is that?! As you can see, I feel pretty excited about it!

So that was an awesome meeting. We did some service this week, we cleaned up a man's yard who had to go into a care home. It was a TON of work! We were SOOO sore the next day! It was sadly a pretty slow week in the work. We haven't been able to contact W at all, or Y, and almost nobody has answered their door. The good news is S is getting baptized this Saturday, and we are asking permission to go :) We hope we can! So it was a harder week, that's for sure. We have seen many answers to prayers though. I had two specific answers that helped me remember how much God is aware of us and loves us. First, after one day I came home pretty discouraged. Nobody answered, we had been knocking doors all night, I was exhausted and kinda sad. So I sat down to read a conference talk before bed. I was going to read a recent one, but then I decided "naw, I'll read an older one today." I picked a random conference, and the first title that popped up was "notwithstanding my weakness." I laughed a little, because it seemed so perfect. And then I saw the author, and it was elder Neal a maxwell. (He's become one of my favorite apostles - all the missionaries in our mission LOVE him). So, I knew that talk was going to be perfect. I read it, and it was sooo comforting, and so strengthening. It was exactly what I needed to hear that night, and I felt like Heavenly Father was talking right to me. It was amazing! It's in the October 1976 conference if you want to read it.

Our other miracle happened Saturday night. It was another slow day, just knocking so many doors. We went through back up plan after back up plan, and finally we just started going through a list of names in the ward the relief society president gave us to go by and see if they still lived there. Well, we sat in the car, and there were a few different ones we could see. We saw one name, and I felt really strongly a feeling that we should go there. We did, and this man was standing in his front yard. It turned out that he was about to leave to put money on his electricity card to put his lights back on (his power was out). He felt very alone because he had lost everything. His wife left him with his kids, he was barely recovering from cancer, he didn't have a job because he had been so sick, and he was left alone in this huge house, that he can't afford. It was so heartbreaking. We were just able to stand and listen to him share his experiences with us, and it meant so much to him because he hadn't had anyone he could talk to. I know Heavenly Father guided us there to be there for him that night. Even though it wasn't a lesson, it wasn't a golden investigator, it was a son of God who was really hurting and who needed someone to listen to him. It was very powerful, and I'm so grateful heavenly father guided us there.

It really has been a great week. The highlights have probably been going out with members, funny things that happen - we laugh about something every day :) - and just feeling the Spirit so strongly, in our studies, or when we testify to someone, or just feeling the Lord's guidance and strength and peace. I love this area, and I love this work!!! Transfers are next week, so if you send any bday packages this week feel free to send it to the apt. address. If it's sent after Saturday or so, you should probably just go ahead and send it to the mission home :) Thanks so much for everything! I love you guys, and you're in my prayers. 

I love you all! :)

love,

Sister Whitney Morris

we taught A. a new member lesson and he gave both of us cherry chocolates for valentines day! he's the sweetest kid ever!

 

 

 

and another Chihuahua sighting. if you zoom in, this one has an under bite..... pretty intense! 

 

 

 

mas pizza making

 

 

 

sorry, I'm not sure if I sent these already or not.

 

 

 

picking grapefruits!

 

 

 

and us with y, a and sister d :) after a lesson.

 

 

a barking Chihuahua haha

 

 

 

making papoosas :)

 

 

 

a gorgeous flower and skyline of phoenix

 

 

 

one of our many Chihuahuas of the Chihuahua challenge. funny enough, the Chihuahua picture hunt has been pretty slow this week too. but the Chihuahua sightings from the week before made up for it. :)

 

 

 

I love the second one. He's so cute. I'm still convinced I might get one someday.... haha. #chihuahuas4life #especiallythemexicanappleheadchihuahuas #yesthat'sarealkindofchihuahua #it'sthebestkind

 

us and S :) I love her!! She always calls the Spirit the "warm fuzzies"

 

 

 

we taught the plan of salvation with the elders at fhe. the lady in the middle is k b, a returning member. we are at the g's house. I love that family! it was fun!

 

 

sister s and I also got haircuts last week :) her first haircut ever!!! It was so fun!

 

 

 

An olive tree! WITH olives!!