4-27-2015

Dear Family,

Thanks for the emails and pictures! I love getting them every week - always lots of cute lambs, and my awesome family :D I am definitely looking forward to wearing pants when I get home! As well as going to Mt Vernon, the beach, and going jogging! I've gotten pretty out of shape on my mission, sadly.... We have 30 min to exercise every morning, but by the time you pray, use the loo, and throw on workout clothes, it's usually more like 20. So, needless to say, I can barely run a mile and a half now haha. I'm really looking forward to getting back in shape when I go home. :) I would love to go running with you - it's okay if you go ahead of me and everything haha because I'll be slow, but that will help me be motivated to do it every day!

I'm happy to hear Brittany came over! I'm looking forward to shopping with her! If there's an ikea nearby, they usually have super cute furniture for a great deal too. Maybe we can look at Pinterest and find some cute renovating furniture ideas :)

I am so excited to study photography in DC. :) It will be so incredible! I hope dad can set up that appointment soon! Maybe he can explain the situation to them, so either he can do it for me, or we can schedule it asap when I get home. Sometimes it can be hard to get into the right classes because enrolling can be crazy - some students have stayed up till midnight so they can enroll right away because the classes can get filled up quickly... So it would be good to do asap :)

Well I have some great news - I'm staying in Maryvale!!! With Sister W!!! :) :) WOOOHOOOOO!!!! Haha, I am sooo happy! I couldn't have asked for a better ending - or a better push off for my next beginning. They made a lot of really cool changes in our zone! So in Phoenix, there used to be two zones of missionaries, with about 20 missionaries each - Phoenix, and Phoenix south zones. They both were mostly Spanish speaking but a little bit of English. Well, this transfer, they took away those zones and replaced them with a Spanish zone and an English zone, that covers all of Phoenix that's in our mission. Obviously I'm in the English one, in the Spanish one they do all of their planning and meetings and eveything in Spanish which is super cool. But the awesome part is that now my old area in south Phoenix is in our zone!!! So I'm in the same zone as the south mountain ward and vineyard ward again :) another funny thing is that 3 of my former companions are in our zone - sisters A, W, and S! Haha, and some elders that we became great friends with as well! I'm so excited, it's going to be an amazing transfer!

We had so many miracles this week. It was a little bit of a hard week, with stress and the changes - even though they were good changes, change is always a little stressful. But the miracles far exceeded the hard moments. :) One of the miracles is still R. He is incredible! We taught him the word of wisdom this week. He still asks us for the lessons beforehand. So we got there, and he basically taught us the word of wisdom. He told us that he used to drink tea every morning, but after he studied it he stopped. He started living it before we even committed him, or even taught him! He is almost doing everything on his own, we are literally just his guides guiding him through his studies and his journey. It's been so incredible to hear his testimony and see the change in him. He told the elders that before we knocked, he had prayed that someone would come into his life to help him find the truth. He sees us coming and teaching him as his answer. He said that God is compelling him to move forward, and he described to us how he feels he Spirit so strongly, and that's how he knows it's right. It's so incredible! He's the most prepared person I've ever taught. Bishop T also talked with him about the priesthood, and I wish you could have heard R! He said he felt so honored hat he would be able to hold the priesthood someday, and that that was one of the things he was most excited for. I could just see in his face how sincere and humble he was, and I know that he will be a man who truly honors and appreciates the priesthood. It was incredible to see. We are so excited for him! :)

We had the best night last night! So first of all we weren't in by less active members we had never met before. We knocked on a door, and a man answered, and at first j was scared! I didn't recognize the name, but when I saw him I realized he was a man we almost started teaching last year, but then he and his wife said they don't like sisters, only elders. So I was nervous to talk with him. But then he started telling us about the trials he's been going through, and he said he had prayed that someone from the church would come, and he just had a feeling that somebody would. And then we showed up. We had a powerful lesson with him, and it really helped him and strengthened his testimony during this hard time. It was incredible! 

The next miracle was teaching A and J. Their such a cool couple! They have a sad story - A is a returned missionary who was left after his mission. He and J, his wife, want to come back. She's not a member, and she wants to learn more and be baptized. She's had mormon friends all her life, and she wants her kids to grow up in the gospel, and she wants to gain a more personal relationship with Christ. We taught them the restoration last night and it was sooooo awesome :) They are such a cool young couple! We are working with bishop in helping them, and she'll probably be baptized within the next month! She wants to be :) Yay!!! So that is super exciting!!!!

Other then that, it's just been an awesome week. We had transfers, that's always crazy, but we're both so happy to be staying. 

Our address is....

xxx

If you want to send letters, I would love to hear from you! :)

Sorry this emails a little shorter today - we have a ton going on, and my brain is a little tired and scattered haha. But we are doing great, I am so happy, and we are being so blessed. This is going to be the best transfer ever :) 

On my parting note, I'll leave ya with something funny. So sister wr and I have both started keeping a little quote book, because people say the funniest things! So here are some from this week.

Here are some funny quotes from this week...

"Church ball: the only fight that begins and ends with a prayer." - Sister K, an awesome member in our ward.

"Elder, things are looking a little...... Shady." (Swipes off sunglasses) - Elder C

In gospel principles, there is a lady in our ward who is the cutest little old lady ever - she's like a Hollywood diva from the 40s. They were teaching the class, and the teacher said " a man is given a wife for what reason?" N, the cute old lady, responded "to survive" and then laughed hahaha.

"We are going to listen to a message from a man called elder holland. Others refer to him as Jeffrey, namely the Lord." - elder t our zone leader in a training he gave.

Driving by a park in Phoenix, sister w exclaimed "I mean, look at that! It's like an apocalypse of pigeons!"

And we were teaching L, the cutest lady- my recent convert from south phx who moved into this ward a month or so before I got here. C, her fiancé, was telling her about temples. He said "they have them all over the world! Germany, Australia, Japan... The one in Japan is tiny though." 

To which L replied, "that's because the people are so cute and tiny there!" Haha, she didn't mean anything about it, she just said it in this cute way! It was cute :)

Well, love you guys! Sorry this email is so scattered. I hope you have an awesome week! :) love you!

Love,

Sister Whitney Morris 

4-20-2015

Dear Family,

Thanks for the emails!! I was SO happy to hear about the art program acceptance too! I think it is incredible, the timing of receiving that. It was amazing to me too, having sent that letter a few days before, and then receiving the acceptance. It felt like a confirmation to me that Heavenly Father is helping to guide me in my choice, and that its right. I'm happy to hear about Dad's job, and that Brittney liked my letter. I really love her and Dexter, and I support and love them completely. It was fun to hear about his marine training, and I'm happy he gets to go to boot camp soon! You'll have to make sure you send me his address so I can write him. It was funny seeing the pictures. It's funny - I have a hard time seeing if I've changed on my mission, and in what ways, because it's such gradual change I guess. I don't know if I've changed or not. But I do know one huge way I've changed is what I value in an eternal companion. I was talking about this with sister w last night, before my mission I had my heart set on some righteous military hero. I mean, that sounds pretty awesome :) not complaining if it ends up that way! but I've come to know that there are so many true heroes that would make incredible husbands and fathers. I think my perspective has changed a lot in a good way, because before my mission I was so nieve and a little immature. I think I probably still am in some ways, but I'm grateful for the things my mission has taught me about finding an eternal companion. I've learned to value the most important things, like a firm testimony, humility, honor, courage, patience, kindness, compassion, strength, ect.... As well as being able to kill a moose with his bare hands. Hahaha, ok, kidding on that one :D but seriously,  I think my whole perspective has changed a lot. Anyways, sorry to ramble about that :D

I'm glad tiny Tim has recovered, and that's so crazy Jacob went to his first dance!! Soooo weird! It was fun to see pics of him and Isaac and Hannah in her cute grandma dress. :)

I did have one question about school - do you think you could schedule that appt for me to meet with that guy to sign up for classes? We'll have to figure out what classes I need to take, so hopefully I can still graduate on time, or not delay it too long with the transferring of credits and everything. I am sooo excited to live in Washington, D.C., and to study art there. That is seriously my dream, and I am so, so grateful Heavenly Father made it possible. 

We've had a great week here! The transfer is ending, we'll find out if we're being transferred this Tuesday. I think both of us will be staying - I really hope so! I love sister wright sooo much, and this area is so special to me. I love it, I love the people. I would be happy to die here. But if any changes happen, I know they'll be for a good reason, and I'll be happy with whatever happens.

R is doing amazing. We've been teaching him, and he is completely committed to his baptism. Funny story : last week he came to church for the first time. We had some sort of miscommunication, and he had actually thought he was getting baptized that day! But he showed up anyways! Haha. He loved church, and came again yesterday. We've been teaching him the lessons, and he does so much studying. He studied the Sunday school lesson ahead of time so he would be able to participate. He also asked us to tell him what we'll be discussing in the next lesson so he can study ahead of time and prepare himself. He is incredible. We taught him the restoration, plan of salvation, and the gospel of Jesus Christ. When we put him on date, after we left he wanted to learn more about baptism. So he searched and studied about baptism in his gospel library app on his phone, which he loves. He is incredible!! He also watches the restoration movie we gave him, and he has a testimony of Joseph smith. The eq and rs lessons this week were perfect for him, about president bensons testimony of Joseph smith. It was so powerful! The best part though was we invited him to come to a baptism Saturday evening. Transportation is hard to find in this area, because it's low income and most people don't have vehicles or their vehicles don't work. So our elders quorum president, brother D, pushed R in his wheelchair over a mile to the stake center so he could watch the baptism. It was soooo powerful and so sweet to see him, dressed in his white shirt and tie, pushing ross in his wheelchair down the (let's be honest, a little dirty and rough) streets of Phoenix, with the busy traffic and everything. It was one of the sweetest scenes I've ever seen in my life. R loved the baptism, and he is so excited to be baptized! We're still not sure how it will happen, because he can't walk, but our bishop and ward mission leader and us will figure something out. I really love R, he is SO prepared, and so dedicated! He has every excuse not to come to church and jot so things, but he wants to and he is so dedicated, and Heavenly Father is blessing him. It's powerful hearing him talk to us about how he feels the Spirit leading him in this direction and the happiness it brings him. It is so incredible and indescribable. ♥️

I'm trying to think of what else has happened.... We've done a TON of street contacting, which has been so fun. We met the sweetest old man the other day. He is blind, a marine veteran, and his wife died a few years ago. He used to be a preacher and loves the bible, and yet he is so open and wants to come to church! We had the sweetest conversation with him. I love talking with people. It's scary, the hardest part is just starting by saying hello. But once you do, it's amazing to see how many people are wanting to talk, and just need someone to listen and be a friend. I love the people here so much. I'm going to miss them. 

So much has happened, it's been such an awesome week. I have felt really sad these past two days, knowing my last transfer is coming. My mission has been the greatest experience I've ever had in my life. I don't feel ready to go home. There's so much I still want to learn, and I still want to serve. It makes me so sad to think about leaving. I am excited to see you all again, and for the great things in life still coming. But right now I just love my mission so much. I am going to miss it so, so much. But I guess I'll just not focus on that - I'll just focus on loving and appreciating each moment, and making every moment count. I love this gospel, and I love my Savior. I know that He is real and that He is the one whose given me the strength to serve a mission. It's not easy, but He has helped me. Serving Him and feeding His sheep has been the most rewarding, joyful experience in my life. The moments where I have felt such great joy, such great love that I can't even describe will be moments I'll always treasure, and they make every rejection, every hot, exhausting day biking worth it. I have loved my mission. 

Well, I love you guys. I hope you always remember how much God loves you, and I hope you all remember what great potential we have in helping his children come unto Him. We all can help and serve in some meaningful important way. There are three quotes from pmg  I want to share that I love...

First,

“Let the Saints remember that great things depend on their individual exertion, and that they are called to be co-workers with us and the Holy Spirit in accomplishing the great work of the last days” - Pres Joseph Smith

Isn't that incredible? We are called to be coworkers with the prophet, with the Lord, with the Holy Ghost in accomplishing the great work in the last days. Great things depend on our individual exertion. Out of small things proceeds that which is great. No matter how small we feel our contribution may be, it is important to the Lord and great things will come of it. We may not see that immediately, or during this life, but one day we'll be able to see clearly.

President David o McKay:

“True Christianity is love in action. There is no better way to manifest love for God than to show an unselfish love for your fellow men. This is the spirit of missionary work” (Gospel Ideals [1954], 129).

The greatest part of being a missionary is the LOVE. You feel the love of God, every day, more then you ever have in your life. You grow to love the people so, so much. You come to love the Savior more...and you learn how to better give love to others.

President Harold B. Lee (1972–1973)

 “Missionary work is but home teaching to those who are not now members of the Church, and home teaching is nothing more or less than missionary work to Church members” (Improvement Era, Dec. 1964, 1078).

I love this one. I have gained such a strong testimony of visiting teaching on my mission. All us children of God are in this together, and we need each other. Members need strengthening and testimonies shared with them, they need our love and support, just as much as people barely coming into the church do. I can't tell you how many people we've taught who could benefit sooooo much from faithful visiting and home teachers. There are so many people who are lonely, who carry heavy burdens, and who may be struggling. It is our responsibility as covenant makers and keepers to fulfill our covenants and love and serve them, and bear their burdens. We promised the Lord we would give him everything in the covenants we made. Let's remember that and try to serve a little more faithfully, a little more gratefully. When we remember that, we feel the Spirit and the love of our Heavenly Father and that service changes us, and it blesses our lives even more then it blesses the lives of those we serve. I definitely know that that's true, I've experienced it on my mission. 

I love you guys :) your such an awesome family. Thank you for everything! I love you!

Love,

Sister Whitney Morris 

4-13-2015

Dear Family,

Thanks for the email! I loved hearing about how everyone is doing. Happy birthday this week, Peter!! :) his bday party looked so fun! Haha, I love the plastic noses! Isaacs crutches that are too small are sooo sad!! And hilarious haha, poor Izey wisey... Or should I say, tiny tim... Haha that's so funny :) I do hope his leg is doing better though!  I got Brittanys letter this week, which was SO sweet. I know they'll pull through. It will work out somehow. I'm really proud of Dexter and that he is doing so well and trying his best to do what's right! I know Heavenly Father will really bless him for the faith he is showing and with his righteous desires. It will work out. :) I did get the Easter package, thank you so much for sending it! We especially loved the gummy lambs and ducks - they were delicious :) and I LOVED the earrings! Thank you!

As far as logistics when I come home, I think the main things are getting released - hopefully the same day I get home? That is the saddest sentence ever.... Gosh, I donnt want to not be a missionary anymore :( I'm going to miss it sooooo much. I guess please be patient with me and my returned missionary struggle ha. It will be a great blessing. I want to get involved in institute, getting a job, and preparing for school asap - which includes getting a cell phone... I think that might be the main thing at first. That and a job for gas and savings. But we'll work that out when I get home! I also will have almost no clothes haha, but I've saved all my gift cards for post mission shopping, so that will help! Anyways, this is making me really sad, so I'm going to move on to a different topic. 

It was so sweet and sad to hear about Adams experience sharing his testimony. Adam, I want to share a story with you. So my companion, sister w, is the most awesome missionary EVER! She's from Arkansas, and is such a powerful teacher, and has such a strong testimony. She is one of the best people I've ever met! She is incredible! With how awesome she is, I think Heavenly Father gave her a weakness for a reason, I don't know why. Maybe to help other people. But she gave me permission to share this :) She has social anxiety, and so if we're in a big group of people she sometimes will start crying. But the most hard thing for her is public speaking. In district mtg, our district leader asked her to share a 5 min thought. She stood up, and she started, and then she started getting soooo nervous. Her eyes kind of rolled back, and she started tipping forward, and I had to catch her! We went to the bathroom, and it was so sad. She was heartbroken and felt like a failure. But the awesome thing is that she didn't give up. She was scared that nobody would ask her to speak again. But after the meeting, our district leader apologized, and said if she ever wanted to share a thought again to let him know and she could do that. That meant the world to her. Well, Saturday night, at the luau we had, we had to give a little lesson about missionary work. In front of like 50 people! And you know what she did?? At the end, she gave a little presentation in front of everyone!! It took so much courage! It's okay to get nervous sometimes, and it's okay if we feel like we messed up. The good thing is that we can always get up and try again. And when we finally succeed, it's all the more valuable because of the struggle we had to overcome to succeed. She is one of my greatest heroes, and you are too Adam. :) I loved your testimony about sheep and the savior! It was so good! I'm excited to hear you share it again someday. :)

I had one other story I wanted to tell you guys. So we have the most amazing young woman in our ward. She is incredible! We went on visits with her, and at the end she asked us for advice. She said some of the yw were mean to her, and gave her unkind stares and remarks during church that made her feel really sad. We comforted her, testified of Gods love for her. And the amazing thing is this young woman tried to smile at them, and be kind in return, but it didn't help anything. She shared this with us, and then I felt prompted to share Hannah's poem with her and tell her a little bit about how Hannah struggled with similar things. But how AMAZING and strong she is, and how the young woman was so strong and incredible too. She started crying, and it helped her soooo much! Hannah, your poem and example made the difference and brought comfort to a young woman many miles away from you. You never know what difference you can make. I just wanted to share that with you :)

As for us, it's been such an amazing week! I love my area, I LOVE my companion, and I love this gospel - especially studying the scriptures. I absolutely love being a missionary. :) we had so many cool experiences! 

The first is that we have an AMAZING investigator named R!! He's probably in his early 60s, a navy veteran who is disabled (he's in a wheelchair and has alot of pain :(  ) but he is sooo prepared. We taught him the restoration, bom, and plan of salvation, and he is amazing. He studies on his own, reads everything we give him, and he wants to be baptized! May 9th is the day! It's so cool, he has started telling his family, and they all started asking him why, and saying he shouldn't do it, and even got angry, but he told them that he is doing this for himself and God, and he has already started gaining such a strong testimony. On Sunday he came to church and it was so awesome. Afterwards the elders, eq president, and our wml and his dad gave him a blessing of health because of the pain he was in. It was soooo powerful. They taught him a bit about the priesthood and what a blessing is and how it's dependent on his faith beforehand, and he told us that even when we first told him about what a blessing is he believed it would help. Elder C (an elder in our ward - we have 3 sets of missionaries) pronounced the blessing, and instantly the Spirit filled the room. We could feel that R had such strong faith, and so Heavenly Father blessed him sooo much. The Spirit was so, so strong. It was so powerful!! It was one of the most spiritual experiences of my mission. It is truly an absolute honor to be able to serve and teach these people! R is so awesome!! When he's baptized we might have to do it on a stretcher, or have multiple people baptize him because he can't lean backwards, so he'll have to go go straight down laying on his back. But the eq and bishop are going to work something out! He is so excited!

Yesterday was such an amazing day. So many special, incredible things happened. It is the greatest miracle to know that the Lord is working through you, and to see Him answer prayers and bless the lives of His children through you. 

We got to go to the temple on Thursday, and that was awesome! We did a session, and it was so beautiful and so spiritual. I love going to the temple. The Spanish missionaries had a big conference this weekend, and they got to go through and do a session in Spanish! That seemed really cool. :) 

We've been teaching so many people and have had many incredible experiences - whether it be somebody on the street, or less active families, or with our investigators. On Saturday we had a ward luau to help motivate the ward to share the gospel. It was crazy, but so awesome too!! We have AMAZING Polynesian families in our ward, so they made delicious food - bbq pork, delicious noodles, and pineapple upside down cake. Yum! They also had a dance group come and provide entertainment - hula dancing and some of the brothers did the Hahkka (the dance the rugby team on forever strong does before their games.) it was kind of intimidating haha, but SO awesome!! After the dinner we as missionaries provided different workshops, along with some awesome members in our ward. We based our trainings off of he book "the power of an everyday missionary" which is an AMAZING book! And it's easy and fun to read! Our mission pres approved us to read it because alot of stakes in az use it. It's an awesome, awesome book! So that was great. 

We had some funny experiences this week too - one of the less active guys we were teaching had a lesson with us. He was baptized 5+ yrs ago. But hasn't been to church in forever, and just lost his testimony :( he loves Christ but doesn't understand why we need the bom. So that was really sad. He basically dropped us, and we just shared our testimonies and told him if he ever felt he was missing something in his life that he would always be welcome. A few hrs later though he called. We missed it, so we texted back "did you call?" This was his reply... "Yes I want to talk more but maybe I'm wrong but the thing is and don't take this wrong I'm in love with you, everything about you please call me. I ask God to give me a woman who love Him then me please never let me go." Hahaha... Oh man.... It was a little crazy! So we didn't text back or anything, and we made a note in his teaching record to not send sisters. Poor guy! I feel so sad for him. 

I think that's about all for this week! Soooo much happens every single day, so many miracles and times I feel the Spirit, and it is incredible. Also some hard and discouraging times, A dropped us. That was really, really sad. We met with her, and her mom has been telling her bad things about the church, and she also looked up anti material. We talked with her in the lesson and just bore our testimonies, expressed our love for her, and hopefully left some seeds planted. She was doing well but just started listening to the wrong voices, and wouldn't give the Book of Mormon a chance. She wouldn't read it because she was scared. It was really, really sad! But the good thing is before we left she had us teach her kids a little bit about the Savior. We taught them using a few videos and pictures, teaching them about Christ and his life and atonement. It was a sweet note to end on, and we just bore our testimonies and invited her to read and pray and left. I feel that someday she'll be ready, right now is just not her time. But I'm really grateful we had the opportunity to teach her, I really love her and her kids. 

I love the people so much. My companion is THE BEST. I love her so much! She is hilarious, and also so sweet and kind. I feel myself becoming a better person because I'm around her! I am quite serious when I think Heavenly Father blessed me with a companion near the end to teach me what to look for in a spouse! As funny as that sounds, haha. I love training her, and I feel like I'm learning more then she is! Being a missionary is the best!

Well I think that's all for today! As part of the technology program were only allowed to use iPads for email now, so no pictures today :( and probably for a while. They're going to try and work something out, but that's why my grammar is so bad - silly autocorrect!

I love you guys! Thanks for the awesome emails. :) I love you and have an awesome week!

Love

Sister Whitney Morris 

4-6-2015

Dear Family,

Thank you so much for the emails! I absolutely love reading them, they really make my week. :) I haven't gotten the package yet, but I hope to get it today! The lambs are sooooo cute!!! I especially loved hearing about how it has helped Adam and ya'll come closer to the Savior, and gain insights to His love and how He cares for His sheep - including the one, out of the ninety and nine. Those experiences are so sweet. :) Wasn't Conference incredible? I wrote down many questions, and within the first two talks half of them were answered. There are so many things I loved, and I know with all my heart that President Monson is a prophet of God, and that this church is Christ's kingdom on the earth today. I am so, so grateful that we have this knowledge and the knowledge of God's plan for us in our lives.

 

 I can't believe Isaac is starting his mission papers soon!! That is soooo exciting!! :) I am so, so excited for him! Serving a mission has been the greatest experience of my entire life! He is going to love it. It is so hard, it's probably the most difficult thing I've ever done, but also the most incredible. If I could give anyone going out to serve any advice, it would be to remember Christ's Atonement, and how it can enable us - give us strength and power to do things we cannot do ourselves, and also to love and befriend your companion, no matter who they are or how different you are. I loved the story in Conference about the obedient, hard working missionary who had a difficult companion, and how Heavenly Father gave him a gentle reminder that compared with God, they weren't too different from each other. I think that is sooo true for each of us. It's strange being near the end of my mission, I see younger missionaries who make similar mistakes or have similar weaknesses I had, before I learned what I was doing wrong and started to change to become better. It can be frustrating, but then you just do remember that you made similiar mistakes before, and that we're all at different stages of growth, but we are all on the same path, and God wants each of us to return to Him and become perfected in Christ. That's one thing I truly want to remember throughout my life, because it's true. We cannot become perfected in Christ if we are not humble, if we are judgemental or have pride in us. Pride is a stumbling block that keeps us from love, from service, from feeling the Spirit, and from being close to Christ and accessing His Atonement. There is SO much pride I need to remove from myself, and it can be a painful process stripping it away. But I just hope I can always turn to the Savior and become more like Him, do what He wants me to do, and say what He wants me to say. 

I also loved Dexter's facebook post. That was so awesome, thanks for sharing with me. :) I'm glad everyone is doing well, and I love you guys!

As for us, it has been an awesome week! Wrapping down to the end of my mission has been a humbling experience. I think it's sort of like how you feel before your earthly life ends - you think back on the mistakes you made, the things you wish you had learned from the beginning, and I have realized there is so much I need to repent for. The natural man can easily influence us to sin - whether it be sin by omission, like not talking with someone on the street, or not following a spiritual prompting, or to sin - like by choosing to remain angry with your companion, or choosing to feed anger or be self absorbed. I feel sorrow for the mistakes I've made and my many weaknesses, and I just want to apologize to the Lord and to those people who I may have impacted because of my weaknesses and mistakes. At the end of my mission, I want to feel like I have done all I could, like I have done what my Heavenly Father wanted me to do. It can be hard to know and feel like you've done enough, to know if He is happy with you. I can say with confidence that I have strived to be exactly obedient and work diligently throughout my entire mission. I am so grateful I did, if I hadn't then ending my  mission would be so difficult and would be filled with so many regrets. I think this is a really good analogy for our earth life, and I want to live my life in such a way that I can be reunited with the Savior, and that He will see my face with pleasure, and wrap me in His arms, and tell me, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant." I would want Him to know that I loved Him and that I did my best to serve Him and become like Him, that I really tried to give my heart and life to Him. After all, He did give it all to me. I love my Savior, and I know He lives. I want to spend my life coming to know Him personally, and helping others come to know Him and feel His love through me. 

 

It has really been a great week. My heart is just so full after Conference. I am so grateful for the  prophet and apostles, and for our wonderful leaders, and most of all for having the knowledge of the gospel in my life. 

L is doing okay, he actually had to go to the hospital, and he's hooked up to some hospital equipment, so we are having to postpone his baptism for a week or so. He's doing fine, just has to have a little recovery time. His family is really excited for his baptism, his son (whose a member) is going to baptize him. We are excited for him!

We got to go to the Easter Pageant again, and I didn't see Sister C, but another sister in our mission talked with her! Sister C asked if she was in the Tempe mission, she said yes, and then she told her to say hi to me! So it was fun to have that little Woodstock connection! We went with K and our investigator A. It was such a wonderful time! We've been doing a lot of street contacting, working with members, and having great lessons. I absolutely love this area, and I love the people here. We had a cool experience yesterday - there is a lady we've been trying to teach, but her parents really don't like us and are against the church. Well, last night we were walking through their apt complex, and we saw her mom standing alone in the dark (the one who doesn't like us.) We asked if she needed help, and she said she was looking for her son - he was lost, and she had been searching for him for an hour, and didn't know where to go to find him. We offered immediately to help, and went to look for him. We went a direction, and found him almost immediately - about 5 minutes later, playing with another family and looking for easter eggs. (yeah, at 8:30 at night. #maryvale) We called him over, and told him his mom was looking for him, and walked with him back to his mom. She was so relieved. She thanked us, and just walked away. It was a really cool miracle. We were thinking how cool it might have been if she were standing there praying (because she's a strong christian) looking for a son, and the Lord led us to her and helped her find him. It was a really special experience, and I know the Lord helped us and guided us to help her, and hopefully help her heart soften more to the gospel and the message we have to share, that could bless her life soooo much if she could only accept it. Maybe that little experience was part of her journey to prepare her someday to accept the gospel. It felt good to be able to serve and help one of God's children.

Well, I can't think of too much more to tell - I LOVE Sister W. I think she's one of my best friends. After nightly planning we always talk and laugh, and we have so much fun together. She helps me be a better person. Walking into the library today, she started singing the mulan song defeat the huns, but the words were "Let's get down to business to email our moms" hahahaha. She is so funny! I absolutely love her!! She says funny things like that every day, that keeps me laughing. It's funny, I feel like Heavenly Father blessed me in this last part of my mission with a companion who I get along SO well with, who helps me see more of what I want in a future eternal companion! Hopefully that doesn't sound weird! She is sooo awesome!!! 

We did our mission 5k this morning, and it was so fun! We got polar pops afterewards, yum. :)

Well, I hope ya'll had an awesome Easter! I love you, and I am so grateful for you. Thank you for being such an awesome family. I hope you all remember how much God is aware of you and how much He loves you. I hope all of us can take time in our lives to recognize His hand and His miracles in our lives, because I know they happen every day, sometimes in unexpected ways.

Well, I love you! Have an awesome week!

Much love,

Sister Whitney Morris

Easter bunnies after service at St Marys food bank (thats why we look tired haha)

 

 

kittens!!! sooo cute!!

 

blossoms :)

 

 

 

easter pageant and a sweet yw who comes out with us with her future sister missionary badge

 

 

3-30-2015

Dear Family,

 

Thank you so much for the birthday wishes!!! On my birthday we had an all mission sister meeting in Tempe, so I was sitting in the chapel waiting for the meeting to start, and I opened my email and there were your and Dad's emails for my birthday. It made me so happy to read the lyrics of the John Denver song. I'm so grateful for you, Mommy. You've been such an awesome Mom and I'm so grateful I've always been able to feel your love for me. That song also reminded me of Heavenly Father's love for us - He'll walk in the rain by our side, He'll cling to the warmth of our tiny hands. I am so grateful for families and for our loving Heavenly Father, who created this beautiful plan for us to be with our families for forever. :) That made me so happy!

I'm so proud of Dexter. I hope his training is going well!  I LOVED hearing about the baby lambs being born on my birthday, and  Adam's testimony of the Savior and taking care of the sheep. I would LOVE to read his testimony, if you would share it!!! That reminds me, I was asked to share my testimony at the sister meeting on Saturday. I don't know if Hannah remembers this, but she shared a poem with me before I left on my mission she wrote about how Heavenly Father's acceptance is more important. I hope she doesn't mind, I didn't tell anyone who wrote it, but I shared it in my testimony, and it was sooooo powerful... just how she could find confidence in knowing she was a daughter of God, and what knowing that brings to us, and how POWERFUL it is to help God's children come to know that for themselves too. Her poem really made a difference that day. :) 

It was sooooo awesome to get E's email!!! That seriously made my day as well!!! I am so happy for him and the young man he helped. They are amazing! Couldn't have asked for better news on my birthday. :) Thanks also for sending me some comments people wrote on my fb wall for my birthday! I loved getting J's and E's and Aunt L's! That was really sweet, thank you. :)

I'll definitely pray for Dad and his job! And thanks for explaining the campfire haha! I wasn't worried or anything, I just thought it was really funny :D

Well as for us this week has been amazing!!!! It has been insanely busy. Thanks for praying for L!!! Great news - he has been living the Word of Wisdom!! He's believed it's true from the beginning, this week he just explained that when he went one morning without coffee, he started feeling withdrawals, and so he drank it again. But the good news is that we had an AWESOME few lessons with him this week, and Saturday we called him to make plans for his baptism - speakers, hymns, and everything, and he said that he's been living the Word of Wisdom! He sounded so proud and so happy to tell us! It was such an awesome moment. :) So thank you for praying for him! I think your prayers really did help to strengthen him. He is so excited to be baptized and to receive the gift of the Holy Ghost!

We also met the coolest lady named A! Last P day she stopped the elders in the walmart parking lot and asked if they were mormons, and wanted to meet with us. So we met with her a few times this week, and she is incredible!!! She has a little bit of Christian background, and loves the Bible, and she has soooo many awesome questions. She is very interested in learning. She's a little fearful, but she is asking so many questions and wants to pray and ask God if our message is true. So that has been really exciting. She's a really special lady, she's already started making changes in her life to come closer to Christ, and she really sincerely wants to follow Him and find truth. It has been such a powerful experience sharing the message of the Restoration with her, last night we taught her about it, and the Spirit was so strong! She is an amazing person! 

We did some service this week at an old folk's home, and I met the sweetest old man named J. We just played games and talked with them. He was an Air Force vet, and told us how he used to love roller skating really fast, and what oldies song he used to love to skate to. He was sooo sweet! Just the happiest, young at heart older gentleman I've ever met! It was really fun to talk with him and spend time with the people there. 

I got to go on exchanges into the Spanish area which was so fun too!! I love going into Spanish areas - they always feed us the most delicious food, and I get to practice Spanish a little bit. It's amazing how you still feel the spirit so strongly and have an idea of what their talking about, even though you don't understand everything. We taught an older lady the Restoration, and Sister J (the sister I was with) told her she liked her skirt. Well, the lady brought over her skirt and gave it to her! It was so sweet! We also had a really cool experience - we were looking for a member who they had never met before. There was a lady in the backyard doing laundry, so we called out to her, and she came to the front yard to talk with us. At first it was realllyyyyy awkward, but she was willing to talk, and we asked if we could share a video with her, and she said yes. We shared Because of Him with her (Because He Lives hadn't come out on our ipads yet) and I thought she wasn't really paying attention - she was kind of looking around, not really looking at the screen, or when she was looking she just looked expressionless. But after the video Hermana J asked her a question, and the lady just started crying. She opened up and shared in Spanish her feelings, and how she hadn't been to church in so long. We could tell she was having a really difficult time in her life. So Hermana J testified of God's love to her in Spanish, and I was just praying in my heart that she would feel His love, and it was soooo powerful. She told the spanish sisters to come back again, and they are going to start teaching her! That was such a powerful experience for me. You never know what someone is thinking or feeling when you teach or testify. Even if they don't show it, they could be having a spiritual experience inside that you just don't know about. It reminds me of when Abinadi preached to the judges, and the one man who believed was Alma. Abinadi probably didn't know he was the only one believing, but because he testified and taught boldly, the one person who was prepared believed and felt the truthfulness of his words, the one whose heart wasn't hardened. It was really cool to see that in real life!

We've done a TON of biking this week, which has been really fun, and also really hot! It's already in the 90s... and we're getting pretty nice tans. :) We had some pretty funny experiences this week - for some reason, in Phoenix there is just a theme of sister missionaries getting hit on. We get marriage proposals/invitations to date pretty regularly, all of us sisters. This week we were standing on the side of the road, looking up our next address, and this car pulls over and the guy yells "Hey! Do you two have boyfriends?!" We both felt really awkward so we just turned around and ignored him haha, and then he yelled for a few more minutes (Come with me! and finally, Happy Friday!) and then he drove away. It was pretty crazy though! Also on Spanish exchanges, we were knocking on a door, and these gentlemen across the street started ay yay yaying at us (that Spanish ayyy yayy yayyy, if you know what I'm talking about.) and then they started serenading Spanish love songs to us! It was sooo hilarious! We just ignored them and biked away quickly hahaha. It was pretty funny though!

My birthday was SO awesome. We had an all sister missionary meeting in Tempe, where all the sister missionaries came. They gave us four conference talks to read before hand about women, and it was sooo powerful. Some sisters were asked to lead discussions on the talks, others were invited to share their testimony. It was cool, the night before we were biking home around 8:55 pm, and this sentence just came into my head "Soy un hija de Dios" which means I am a daughter of God. Those words came into my mind, and I felt this profound love from Heavenly Father, for me and for my companion and His daughters that we had talked with and taught that day. It was such a simple yet profound spiritual experience. About 10 minutes later, Sister T (our mission president's wife) called and asked me to share my testimony the next day! It was a really neat experience! So that was a fantastic meeting on my birthday. We had a brunch too, and I got to sit next to President and Sister T and talk with them. I love them so, so much. They are some of my greatest examples. We had that meeting all day, which was super powerful, and then at the end we ate dinner together, then went and watched the Womens Broadcast all together!! It was soooo awesome!!! President T also gave us each permission to text our moms 10 minutes before the broadcast, to just tell them we love them. I couldn't remember Mommy's phone number so I looked it up in my lds tools and texted the number in there, but I think it may have been a house phone haha.... oh well. It was cool though, he talked with us about forming traditions that will keep our families strong and participating in the gospel, like attending womens broadcast together as mothers and sisters, and how maybe from now on in our lives if we're not with our mom we'll send her a text before the broadcast, letting her know we're thinking of her... because at home, probably most of our moms are sitting there, wondering where we are at that moment and what we're doing. It was just such an awesome day. 

Afterwards our roommates, the sisters we live with, got permission to get us ice cream on the way home for my birthday. It was sweet :)

Well, it was such an awesome week!!! I LOVE being a missionary!!! I love my companion, so, so much! I feel like Heavenly Father blessed me with her to really help me prepare for my future marriage and family. Because I have learned so much from her! I'm learning how to be happy, how to laugh often, how to keep the Spirit and happiness in our companionship, and she's just shared so many things with me that have strengthened my testimony and faith in the future. It's probably the best transfer ever :) And L's getting baptized, and A is just golden.... things are going amazing!!!

One more funny story - we were biking, we stopped at a traffic light (sweating profusely because it's hot, of course.) And this random man jumps out of his car, and starts taking pictures of us! He took two or three, then yelled at us that he didn't know that the girls rode bikes too, and then jumped in his car and drove away! It was so random! 

One more awesome thing happened - I was sitting in ward counsel on Sunday, and someone opened the door and gave me a note that said "Sister Morris, your mission mom is here!" I didn't know what it meant, so I just sat there, but then later the zone leaders knocked and asked if I could come out - I came out, and Sister R was there!!!! We gave each other the hugest hugs, and we were just laughing and were sooo happy to see each other!!! It was such an awesome reunion! She was my trainer, the best one I could have ever asked for. I love her so much, she's home now and came back to visit. I'm so grateful I got to see her. It was an awesome day. :) 

Well, I think that's all for this week. I love you guys! Thanks again for all the love and support and for writing me each week :)  I love getting your emails!! If you could send L's pics to me next week, that would be awesome!!!

I just want to let you know that I love being a missionary. It's definitely the best choice I've ever made in my life. I know with all my heart that this church is true, that the Book of Mormon is true, that God lives and that He loves us and is aware of us. I know His hand guides us in this work each and every day! And I know some of the greatest happiness in life we can ever have the privilege to feel comes when we bring souls unto Him - whether it be on this side of the veil or the other side! This gospel is true and it's the greatest! :)

I love you!!

 

love,

Sister Whitney Morris

Sorry I didn't take many pics this week - just this random sign we saw, drilled into a palm tree with a screwdriver hahaha, looking for a lost person. :P Oh, Maryvale! It's an adventurous place, that's for sure!