May 11, 2015

Hey Family!

Thanks so much for the emails! It was SO awesome seeing you last night. :) It was so fun to see you all and hear your voices! Don't worry about writing me "trunky" emails at all haha. Mommy, you haven't said one thing that has made me trunky. Every single email you have encouraged me to work hard and have told me what a good example I've been, and even though you talk about things from home or the future it's totally fine! If you were a boyfriend then talking about the future would make me trunky haha, but the things you tell me don't make me trunky at all. And I'm really not trunky at all - we are still working hard, being obedient, giving it our all, and are loving being missionaries! So it's totally fine! You haven't made me trunky at all! :) I really appreciate you guys being concerned about that though! That shows what awesome supportive parents you are!

That's so funny and sad about Isaacs graduation, haha! We'll have to get some really good picture of him to make it up. Sounds like he had a great attitude. :)

Thanks for sending me Dexters address, I'll write him a letter today. I'll say a prayer for Brittany as well!

Well as for us it's been a fantastic week! This morning was crazy haha. Our whole mission went to hike in Maricopa, on the Mormon battalion trail for our p day. President and sister T took us all, and they had a history specialist come and tell us about the Mormon battalion. It was so cool!!! It was a 2 hour drive away though... So we woke up at 3:30 this morning to hit the trail by 6, because it was getting hot pretty quickly. It was so much fun! We hiked the trail, got to see old companions and friends who were transferred away, and spent time in the desert and the beautiful Arizona mountains. It is sooooo beautiful, in a desert kind of way. We had such a great time! 

It was really cool - over a year ago I started my mission in Maricopa, and in my last transfer I got to go to the building where I did training and went to church and skipped with my trainer as a trainee, and in my last transfer I got to go again with my trainee, and now co senior comp - the lovely sister wright :) it was really special!

We just barely drove him, and I am exhausted haha, so it will probably be a shorter email today. It's been a little bit tough lately - last night I felt really sad because of one of the sister missionaries we live with. She's really, really hard to live with, and it's really stressful. Sister W and I just talked about it until bedtime last night, and she was so supportive and kind and helped me so much! She is the best! I love her so much! 

R's baptism was sooo incredible. It was the most stressful baptism I've ever set up, haha. It was so crazy beforehand! We had worked on the program earlier that week, but we signed on to print it off the computer at the church, and someone had wiped the computer clean - it didn't even have Microsoft word on it! So it took is FOREVER to make the program because it was this really weird, difficult to use text program, and we didn't have a starting format already set up so we had to figure it all out. It was so stressful! Then the plug to the font was lost, but luckily we found it haha. The font here is pretty old so we have to turn on the hot water for 5 min then turn it off for 5-10, and just keep doing that until it's full. Then, the most stressful thing was R arrived, and he was soooo excited! He had been preparing all day. :) Then the person in the ward who was supposed to find a chair for him to be carried into the font with called us, and told us he wasn't able to find one.... So we scrambled around for ideas, and luckily found a chair in the nick of time. With all the chaos going on, I just kept thinking to myself that it was going to be an incredible baptism, because everything went wrong before haha! And that prediction was correct. They brought R into the font, so smoothly, and so perfectly! He was in the chair, and 3 Polynesian guys in our ward carried him in. One stood behind him holding his head and the back of the chair, then the other two stood surrounding him supporting him, and then the last person stood and pronounced the baptismal prayer. They baptized him and it was perfect, and the Spirit was sooooo strong. ♥️ 4 of R's nonmember daughters came, and one of them was just crying. Afterwards they thanked each of us for helping their dad, and talked about how they had seen such amazing changes in him. The coolest part, and most spiritual, was definitely his testimony at the end though. He bore testimony of the truthfulness of the gospel and the prophet Joseph smith. There's a scripture in acts that describes perfectly R - and I love it! It's such a cool story - basically, the Spirit directed the apostle Phillip to street contact a man who was TOTALLY prepared for the gospel and ends up being baptized. So at the end it says

38 And he commanded the chariot to stand still: and they went down both into the water, both Philip and the eunuch; and he baptized him.

39 And when they were come up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught away Philip, that the eunuch saw him no more: and he went on his way rejoicing.

I love 39 because it says the Lord caught away Philip - you could say that Philip was transferred to another area. But it says the man saw him no more, and went on his way rejoicing. I LOVE this verse, because although I love the people I teach soooooo much - more then I thought my heart could ever feel - I want them to, when I go away, to be rejoicing because of the truth and light they have found in the gospel. I want them to be converted to the gospel, not the missionary. I know for sure that R has truly been converted to the gospel. He thanks us for all we've done for him, but I thank him for what he's done for me, because he really studied and prayed in his own, and that's why he was able to learn so much and gain a strong spiritual foundation - not because we taught him, because the Spirit taught him through us and through his personal experiences praying and studying. He's one of the most firm converts I've ever seen, and I'm so grateful we had the opportunity to see him be baptized and confirmed! He was so happy! All day yesterday, and he received such special blessings when he received the Holy Ghost. It was amazing. :)

I told you about J and A already, and that's really exciting! We also taught A again, the cool guy who defended us last week! We had a restoration lesson with him, and it went so well! Turns out his girlfriend is a member, and invited him to meet with us #awesomemembermissionary. She was there during the lesson, and we brought a member who was THE perfect fellowship - they became instant friends! It was a really great lesson!

It's been a really incredible week, and I just love being a missionary. :)

Haha I did have a few embarrassing experiences this week....

1) We were walking to our apt at night, and we live in an apartment complex that's a little sketchy haha, but safe don't worry. :) Well I saw this guy biking, with a helmet on, and I thought it was one of the elders! So I yelled out "hey elder!" Meanwhile thinking in my head "where is your companion?? And why isn't your helmet strap buckled under your chin?" He yells hi back, and then comes into the street light, and it was totally a police officer!! Hahaha, it was so embarrassing! He looked so much like a missionary! It was so funny. I wonder if he gets that a lot - nobody wears helmets in Phx except missionaries!

So then

2) We are biking along, and sister W and I are having this AWESOME conversation, and I'm turning back my head looking behind me talking to her.... And I bike right into a parked car!! Hahaha it was so embarrassing! The guy came running out and I apologized, and luckily it wasn't hurt at all. Then literally the next street up, some recent converts drove by and waved hi to us. I waved back, and then accidentally swerved in front of a car driving behind us! It honked and luckily didn't hit us, but it was so embarrassing!!! Hahaha, biking is crazy, especially as a missionary in Phoenix!

I think that's about it for this week. There's so much more that happens every day, but I keep a good journal so most of its in there. It was an awesome week. :)

I hope you guys have a good week! I love you! And I'm praying for you. :)

Love you!!!

Love,

Sister Whitney Morris