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! :)
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. :)
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