September 11

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dear Family,

Thanks for the emails!! I hope you got the postcard! I'm so sorry, we changed our P day to Wednesday this week because we went to the temple this morning. I was going to tell you, but I forgot, so I sent a postcard to tell you... hopefully you got it haha. Sorry about that!  I'm so glad things are going well at home! I LOVED Hannah's AZ outfit :) That was adorable!! And totally AZ, especially the shoes! The sock monkey and Isaac's birthday, and the Shenandoah swimming pool in the truck were awesome haha. And Peter's first day of school pic was sooooo cute!! He is the most adorable boy I've ever seen!!! (don't worry, all my brothers are pretty handsome haha).  I'm so excited for E. too!! We will have to set up a Skype lesson for sure :) That's awesome that sister is from Chandler!! I am in the Grove 1st ward, so you'll have to ask what one she's in too :) I got a letter from Dexter, and it made me sooo happy. I will definitely write him and Brittney back too today! She wrote me too and that was awesome! :) That's so cool about the ancient history and the Book of Mormon!! I'm so excited to be able to study more things like that after my mission :) The scriptures sound beautiful, too! Just one more week!! :)

Oh, you know what's cool?? So Sep 20th Elder Christofferson is coming to speak with us in the morning!!! I guess he said he wanted to go to AZ, and out of all the missions in AZ he chose to only speak to ours :) We're so excited!! So we'll have that and then E's baptism!! Talk about the best day ever!!! :D 

 

Thanks for the reminder to enjoy the journey.... I used to get so stressed not having as many lessons and not as many people to teach. It has been so humbling. In Phoenix we were blessed with so much success, it was easy to think "Man, we're doing such a great job!" We never really thought that exactly, but I was happy and content because so many great things were happening, and I thought that meant I was being a good missionary. Which I was, I was obedient and working hard. But it's humbling to be working hard, and not having as much immediate, visible success. It's been very humbling to reflect on myself as a missionary, and see all the areas where before I could just easily wing it as a missionary and have success. Whereas now... I can't wing it. I've been focusing on really studying and developing the teaching skills, and deeply learning the lessons. The growth and progress is slow, but I can see it gradually.. so I know Heavenly Father put me here to learn. I just pray that I'll be able to learn the things that He wants me to learn. It has been sooo humbling. And hard! But I'm really grateful for it. I love the quote by one of the founding fathers I think... about what we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly. I think I definitely took our miracles and baptisms in Phoenix for granted. This transfer is really teaching me alot. I hope the things I learn will develop into a precious treasure, because they are taking such a long time and so much hard work and sacrifice to learn. I've had to learn to sacrifice my pride, and so many things I want to do or make happen... it has been humbling. But so good. I am SO GRATEFUL I was called to serve in Gilbert! I think the things I'm learning here, I wouldn't have learned in another area.

Anyhow, sorry for rambling. This past week and a half has been great!! We had a super cool experience!!! I think this is the happy thing I mentioned last week, but I was going to wait to tell you about. So the week before last, we had a name of a less active person to visit... so after trying to figure out where the house was because it had a weird address, we finally knocked on the door... and an active older couple in our ward opened it! Woops! Haha, we were so surprised! So we just walked in and talked with them, and gave them a spontaneous family mission plan. Well, the brother, Brother R, he told us he had given a Book of Mormon to his neighbor's dad that their really good friends with, and said he has been reading it! So we asked him if he had ever invited them to meet with missionaries, and he said no, but that he would! So he asked his neighbor - the son - if we could come visit them, and the son said yes!!!! Woohoo!!! So we went over Monday night with Brother R and gave a great lesson. Their an awesome family!!! The husband is S, he's a mechanic, and his wife is L. It was a breathe of fresh air teaching them, because they are soooo humble. They live in this small house, and are such hard workers, and they have such a strong family. Their marriage and their children are everything to them. And they have strong faith, they're Lutheran. But they are so humble that they are open and willing to have us share our message with them. It was such a great experience. :) We had another short lesson, but they had a bunch of family over so we just shared a simple Mormon message. But this Saturday we're going to have a first legit lesson about the Restoration! So we are so excited for that! It was such a miracle to randomly knock a door, and have a referral and a family to teach come from it :) I know Heavenly Father definitely blessed us with miracles that night!!

We also had zone meeting this past week, and that was AMAZING. I think I told you we had a general authority come visit... well, they trained us on some things he taught. The sister training leaders and zone leaders did. And it was AMAZING! The greatest thing I learned was about the "loser list". They talked about how the natural (wo)man wants two things: To look good and have power. When things go bad, they turn to the loser list - which is things like excuses, blame, complaining, procrastination, ect. They talked about eliminating the loser list from our lives, and taking responsibility and accountability for everything we do. They talked about acting, not being acted upon, and also about doing vs. becoming. It was AMAZING. It is so hard sometimes, but I've been working on eliminating the loser list from my life and my attitude, and it's made a huge difference. It was an awesome training! 

We also had another cool miracle this week. So we were going by this former... okay, this story is hilarious. So we texted this former, and asked if we could come visit her. She replied "You may... but only if you are willing to sit in silence. For it is in the depths of silence that we can hear God's voice." Hahaha, funny huh?? So we went by a few days later, and they have a sign on their door that says "enter in silence..." She wasn't home, but we talked with her husband and he was super nice. Well, he asked if we had visited a kid down the street who used to take the lessons. We said no! But we decided to go by him right after! So the former basically gave us a referral of another former, haha. We went by the other former, the kid, and his mom answered, and we had an AWESOME lesson with her!!! She had so many amazing questions about repentance, about baptism - especially infant baptism - and about the Book of Mormon. It was so awesome! We had a girl who just got back from her mission with us, and we all taught and testified, and it was such a spiritual lesson!! It was awesome! So hopefully we'll meet with her again soon too :) 

Sunday was awesome too! We taught the gospel principles class, which went well. All 3 of our recent converts bore their testimonies in fast and testimony meeting, so that was awesome :) B's was my favorite... but they were all so good! He has the coolest conversion story! He's like 70, and was getting a divorce. He almost had a heart attack, and decided he needed to get closer to God (he was a non practicing Catholic). So he had a massage, and Sister S, a lady in our ward, was the massagist. She started telling him about the church, gave him a Book of Mormon, and he wanted to come to church and take the lessons. Two weeks later he was baptized. He recently went on a trip to Nauvoo and Carthage, and his testimony is on fire, about the church and Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. It is amazing. :) Such a miracle! You never know who is prepared!

We had another amazing miracle this week! Last one, haha. Sorry this is getting so long :) So we were biking... it was pouring rain all the night before, and it was raining, so we were soaking wet. Sister W was kind of grumpy... haha it frustrates her when I change my mind about things, or am indecisive. So, knowing me, she gets frustrated alot sometimes :P Anyways, so we were biking along, and I had made a goal to talk with EVERYONE. So there were these people down the street, and I said, oh, let's bike this way so we can go talk to them! She said, okay! Sounds great! And then they started walking inside, and I said oh wait, I think their leaving.... she got mad and said well, what do you want to do?? in kind of a rude way, which I felt mad about, so I said to her in kind of a rude way back (I'm ashamed of it... I know... I'm working on it ha) "Well, let's bike this way, and we'll talk to those people just in case one of them is prepared to receive the gospel!" Haha, so we biked toward them, and one of the guy started waving to us! Turns out they were workers working on their tile. The guy waves us over, and turns out he is a member! He tells us that the lady who lives there is super nice! And is dating a member! And has taken the lessons before! And he told us to stop by and say hello, and say he told us to come by!! So he gave us a golden referral! Awesome huh??? All because we made a goal to act in faith. I thought it was so funny, because I totally said "let's go talk to them in case they're prepared" in a sassy way... and it ended up being true! Haha, it was awesome!

Sorry, that's my last story. There's many more to tell, but not enough time. Hopefully they make sense :) But things are going great here. Next week is transfer calls.... I will probably end up moving or being transferred, so maybe start sending mail to the mission office in Tempe :) We went to the temple this morning and it was sooooo beautiful, and so spiritual. I just thought of my family, and our investigators, and I felt the Spirit so strongly. Especially sitting in the celestial room. I'm so grateful I could be here serving a mission for our loving Heavenly Father. 

Besides all that, things are going well. I'm happy :) We have a united, happy companionship. So we have our bumps, but it's great because we're able to work it out and make things good again. I really love her and it's great being her companion :) 

Anyways, sorry I've written so much! I love you all! Here's some last funny moments from the past few weeks :)

Funny Moments

For weekly planning, we always gather as a zone, and start with a hymn and prayer. Sister W and I played "I want to be a Missionary" on the piano for the song together!! She played bottom hand and I played top haha. It was awesome!!

We had dinner with a family who have 5 sons this week. So one of them was 2 or 3, and was sooooo cute!! They started talking about this new family that moved in, and their 15 yr old son said something about "I call the cute one! (talking about the new teenage girl). Well, the two year old kid stands up, points to me, and says "I call her!!" Hahaha, it was sooo funny! Kids are hilarious! It was super cute. 

We got caught in a haboob! Biking!! So we were biking along, and we saw this HUGE dust cloud coming... we biked to our lesson, but we got caught in the middle of a dust storm! It was crazy! Biking, the wind blowing, dust EVERYWHERE - I felt like I was in the middle of a tornado. It was crazy!

And also, the next week, the flooding.... it flooded so much, there were people canoing in the streets! We had to bike through it, so we biked through around 4 inches of water on the sidewalk... it was wayyyy deeper off the sidewalk. It was crazy! But so fun! I love AZ!

Love you guys!! I might write more later. Can't wait to hear from you next week :) I want to hear all about what's happening at home! Love you!

XOoooxxxXOxoooo (nacho libre... haha....)

love,

Sister Whitney Morris :)



Pics of our zone, our temple trip this morning, the dust storm, and the floods, and also Sis W made me breakfast on my halfway mark :) over 9 months!! So crazy... it's gone so fast!