This week. For real this time. - February 16, 2015

We received an email from Morgan that said, "Miracles  things  missionary." and that was it.  45 minutes later we got the real letter!!


So that last email wasn't really my weekly email. SWarren just thinks she's funny. But she is, so that's ok.

We had a lot of really cool things happen this week. So, two weeks ago, we found a new investigator to work with. She's 10 years old and she really wants to be baptized. So, we went to see her yesterday, and her mom answered and said they were busy and to just come back in two weeks (because this girl is only home every other weekend). So, we walked away, slightly dejected..and as soon as we got to our car, we looked back, and she was literally running after us saying, "Wait! Come back! Don't you want to talk about Jesus?" Coolest thing ever. Seriously. That was so cool. We taught her outside for a few minutes then. It was such a cool experience though. No one runs after us for good things.

Last night we were at Johanna and Kaiden's house and Kaiden was showing me his Legos. I showed him the lego shark that I had, so that's how that came up. When we were leaving, he gave me like, all of these legos! He wouldn't take them back. I tried to. I even tried leaving them. But, that was so nice. Seriously. Those kids are some of my favorite people.

Just a reminder, I love mail and emails. Just...yeah. In case you wanted to know.

I really enjoyed this valentines day. I spent an hour washing someone's dishes. That was nice. Serving people is my favorite thing, so I enjoyed doing that. 

I'm not very long winded on emails. So...sorry about that. I usually run out of things to say by now. But I'm really enjoying being out here. SWarren and I have talked this week about making the most of our missions. We've talked a lot this week. A lot. I'm not used to talking so much to people and communicating. So, that's good. I'm learning how to be a more quality person. Because I don't think I was a very Christlike, quality person before my mission. And now I'm working on changing. It's hard, but it's what I needed to do. I wouldn't have been completely happy if I hadn't have gone on my mission. Because, I'm realizing what the most important thing in life is, and what's going to make me truly and completely happy. Yeah. Stuff like that. My mission is saving my life, and I'm so grateful for that.

Have a good week! Remember, I love mail and emails!

Love, Morgan

An Addendum:  So, my birthday is coming up in a few weeks. And I thought I'd send you some things that I desire. Just so you have an idea of things. I would love some socks. I have four pairs of socks and that is just not enough. But seriously, socks. I need some o' those!

This was in a text I received last night!!

Morgan is driving off into the sunset.

Double Whammy - February 2 & 9, 2015

Anyone who feels inclined to write, her address is listed to the right on this blog!!

Hi!

A lot of things happened this week. Which is good.

Yvonne got baptized this weekend! It was such a good service and experience. There were like, over 40 people there. Some were her family, and a lot were from her ward. Which is awesome. Convert baptisms should have a ton of people there. But, after she got out of the font after being baptized, her mom told us that all she could say was "Wow, mom. Wow. Just...wow." So cool. I love Yvonne. She was so prepared and ready.

Teaching Yvonne

Did I ever tell you about Aaron? So, we have another investigator getting baptized this weekend. His name is Aaron, and he's 9 years old.  The bishop called us up, asked if we could teach Aaron (because he's technically a convert - a convert baptism is a baptism of someone over the age of 8) and help him get ready for that. So we did just that. And now he's getting baptized this Saturday. We literally did nothing to find him, and God gave this to us. It's amazing what can happen when we're working hard, being obedient, and trying to find people. We're definitely blessed.

Here's a funny story from this week. So on Thursday, we had interviews with mission president. I also woke up and I was super nauseous. My companion made me eat oatmeal, even though I didn't want to. So, we were sitting in the training the APs were giving, and all the sudden, I look at my companion, and I said I needed to leave. So I walk quickly out to the foyer of the church building we're in, grab a trash can, and go outside so everyone inside doesn't hear/see me. Well. At the same time, the other district in my zone drives up, just in time to see me empty the contents of my stomach into the trash can. It's actually pretty funny now. During the moment, not so much. I stayed in bed for like, a day and a half because I still felt horrible. It's over now, so that's good.

So, I love my companion. SWarren and I are pretty much best friends. She is literally one of my favorite people on planet earth. When I was sick, she got me saltines. When I'm running late in the mornings, she'll make me an egg or make my bed. Seriously, I've learned so much about charity and loving people from her, and I am so grateful to have SWarren as my companion. We tell stories all the time. Like when we're driving, one of us will give the other a story topic and we tell stories. We have fun.

We have another busy week coming up. It's good to be busy. I love my mission, it's changing me every day. It's hard, but I wouldn't have learned the things I'm learning without being here. Preach My Gospel says that our attitude towards our mission experience is a direct reflection of our feelings towards Christ and Heavenly Father. The mission isn't always going to be super easy and easy to love doing, but when I remind myself of this (how our attitude reflects our love for God), things just work and I'm happier.

Anyway.Have a good week! Love you!
morgan

Things that matter - Morgan has tiny hands

February 9, 2015

Hey! We had another successful week here. It was busy, it went fast, and we did a lot of good. 

Our investigator Aaron was baptized this past Saturday.  After his grandpa was baptized, I don't think there was a dry eye in the room. It was so amazing. But, Aaron was so so so so excited. He kept jumping up and down before he got into the font. We were able to teach him everything in a two week span, which is pretty difficult, but we did it. He was so much fun to teach and to see get baptized. 

Here's a story from last week I forgot to tell. So, last Sunday, we went with our recent converts Johanna and Kaiden to church. They went alone (without anyone but us) so they were kind of nervous. Someone usually always goes with them. So, we decided to go. Oh man. That was the most fun I've ever had at church. SWarren and I felt like an actual family with trying to get them to whisper, to sit still, to not tickle each other, etc. But, it was so much fun. Kaiden brought a notebook and he started drawing a picture of Jesus as soon as he sat down. After sacrament meeting, all these people came up to them and invited them to primary and to take them to their classes and everything. They were both super excited, and they said that they weren't nervous anymore. But really, it was so much fun. 

We were teaching them this week as well, and halfway through our lesson, they decided they wanted to be the missionaries. So, they took our tags, our scriptures, and, most importantly, our planners and started teaching us. For some reason, kids love our planners. But, it was the cutest thing ever. That was definitely the best lesson I've ever taught on my mission. I absolutely loved it.

Another funny story from this week - we were teaching a family about prayer. And we usued this analogy (I can't remember how it had to do with prayer), and we said, "Imagine that you know that everyone in America is going to be kidnapped by Canadians." And then the 12 year old that was there asked us, "What are those?" I laughed really hard at that.

So, I've been learning a lot about joy. And real happiness. And what causes that. And I've realized, that real joy, actual lasting happiness, comes from living and experiencing the gospel. In 2 Nephi 2:25 it states that "Adam fell that men might be; and men are that they might have joy." In all honestly, I've really only ever experienced real happiness while I've been on my mission, and that's because I'm trying to live and experience the gospel. Happiness doesn't come from just doing whatever you want, despite the consequences. Happiness comes from being free to choose to follow God. It's cool to see.

Anyway, have a good week!

Morgan

Rozz told me she would be gone nest January-April. Which makes me sad because she won't be there when I get home! :( Oh well, Ukraine sounds like fun!

The pictures of Licky look sooooo so so so cute! He is a cute kitty. I miss him. How is patz?

I got the package, thanks! Also, if you ever feel so inclined, you may send me floss. Floss is apparently quite the hot commodity in Idaho because it's super expensive. $4!!!!! 

I spoke twice in church yesterday. Once in the Milo Ward and again in Yellowstone ward. So much speaking. It is not my favorite. Teaching is more fun because you can actually interact with your audience. With speaking you have to be worried about so many different things. Like, if the people fall asleep or not. Or if they pay attention or not. Or if your skirt got caught in your tights. That happened a few weeks ago. At least it wasn't on the side where the bishopric could see. Only SWarren saw. 

I like serving people. I'm a lot happier when I'm serving my companion. I've noticed that a lot over the past few weeks. I get grumpy when I'm selfish and turning inward, but I'm happy when I'm trying to not be selfish and turning outward. There's a reason Christ was the happiest person that ever lived, he never once did something only for himself. 

Anyway, have a good week!

HEYYYY - January 26, 2015

Thug life with Sister Tu'Akalau

Morgan's dream license plate - it'll get you singing!!

This week was a good one! We worked hard. Again. We work hard a lot....but it's ok. Working hard is funnnnnnnn.

So a few weeks ago, my companion was on the phone leaving a message. As she was closing, she just went into autopilot, and said, "In the name of Jes............bye." I laughed so hard. Now my companion and I both have said embarrassing things that have to do with praying on the phone. 

Something way cool happened this week. So, Johanna and Kaiden's mom isn't a member. And she had a decision to make this week. So we asked her to pray. And she did! It was awesome. It's so cool to see people progress like that. 

So, I found one of my favorite scriptures today. I've been thinking a lot about why I went on a mission and why I'm here. And SWarren had me read this. It's in D&C 6:3. I think it sums up why I'm here and what I'm doing and stuff like that. I'm here because I want to become a better person. And I want to change. And I want to gain my salvation. And one way I can do that is by serving. I'm not saying that everyone has to serve missions to gain salvation, but...it's definitely helping me. That's for sure. 

 3 Behold, the field is white already to harvest; therefore, whoso desireth to reap, let him thrust in his sickle with his might, and reap while the day lasts, that he may treasure up for his soul everlasting salvation in the kingdom of God.

Anyway. On Saturday, we went to a sealing of a family SWarren had taught in her last area. They were super cute and old and it was so cool to see. I can't wait till I get sealed one day. Which is weird. Because I've always wanted to, but I never really made it a solid goal for myself. Missions do weird things to me. Good things. :)

I love being here. Even though it's hard, it is so worth it. When I see the people I've grown to love and teach and stuff, I light up. It's crazy. I love my mission. It literally means everything to me. Everything I did in my pre-mission life is either completely more important or infinitely less important now. It's amazing. I love it. I love you guys.

Love,
Morgan

Week of 10 Billion Miracles - January 19, 2015

By the way, Morgan never exaggerates.  She doesn't even know how to pronounce hyperbole.

I kid you not, we had roughly 10 billion miracles happen this week, it was crazy awesome!

So, there are roughly three things that keep me up at night. One, our recent converts. Two, I can't remember what. Three, the YSA ward we cover. I want investigators in that ward! Yesterday, we got a text from our ward mission leader saying that we had a potential investigator at church and we needed to get there soon. So, we did. This guy is golden. He was in elder's quorum and said that he was thinking about joining the church. Obviously, we were super stoked about that! We set up a time to teach him, and we set a date for him to work towards getting baptized! I walked away and asked my companion, "What the heck just happened?" Seriously, that was amazing! Things like this only happen when you're a missionary, I kid you not.

We spoke in church yesterday. I talked about President Monson's talk called "Charity Never Faileth." It was a legit talk and I loved being able to speak about it. 

So, Yvonne, our investigator with a baptism date, is doing so well! She has a countdown calender to her baptism on the 31st. We briefly talked about a program for her baptism last week, and came back last Tuesday and she had the whole thing planned out already! She said she knows what we're talking about is true because she gets really warm fuzzy feelings when we're over, when she reads the book of Mormon, etc. It's pretty awesome!

Something also really cool that happened yesterday was that we visited a nonmember named Shirley. We were driving down 109th (main street in Ucon) and we had a prompting to go stop by her house. We didn't know why, because we know Shirley wasn't interested. She's older, and she's been through the missionary lessons before. But, we turned around and stopped by. She let us in, asked a question about the Bible (she reads every day), and we got to talking about the Book of Mormon and stuff. She said she didn't believe it. She also said that the night before, she felt like she wasn't filling her potential on earth and was praying to find answers about what she should do. We straight up testified about the BofM and, even after she had said that she would never read it, she said she might! Man. That lesson was so so so soooooosososososo awesome. She's searching, and she didn't even know it! It's lessons like that that you live for as a missionary. It's good stuff.

I love it here. I'm learning so much. SWarren told me that I'm a completely different person than I was six weeks ago. This is seriously the best decision I've ever made in my life.

Love you!

This Weeeeek - January 12, 2015

Another week down!

Transfer calls came and I'm staying in Ucon. I got made a senior companion, and I'm not really entirely sure what that entails. But. Six months in Ucon!

So, here's a story for you. I was sitting in church yesterday, and a little boy was looking at me. So I flashed a peace sign at him. Then, he flashed a peace sign. Then, I flashed some random hand signs. He kept copying me. Then, his mom kind of gave him a look, and he turned around. So, that's the story of me flashing gang signs at little kids at church. Ha.

A lot of really cool things happened this week. On Tuesday, we were eating dinner with a recent convert of two years. She and her husband just got sealed in the temple (which is pretty cool!). One of their daughters had a friend over, and she isn't a member. She's been going to Activity Days pretty regularly and coming to church with them. We asked this girl if she wanted to learn more about the church and she said yes! We went over to her house later and talked to her grandparents (who are inactive) and her grandpa said that he encourages learning about the church! That was way cool. We'll start teaching her this week.

Another awesome thing was that we set a baptism date with one of our investigators, Yvonne. She's a 9 year old girl that we found. She is AWESOME. We set the date for January 31, and when she went to church this Sunday, she told everyone she's getting baptized. She's the coolest 9 year old I've ever met! We're really excited for her. More importantly, she's really excited. Yvonne is the best

If everything works out, we'll have seven baptisms this transfer. We've been doing a lot of work, and I'm exhausted all the time. It's good to be exhausted, though. It means I'm actually doing work. 

That's really it to report. I love you all!

Rigby Zone

Sisters Grey, Smith, & Blankenship

Tag!!  You're IT!!

2015 - January 5, 2015

This entire year will be spent as a missionary. Crazy stuff. 

But, we had a really good New years eve and new years day here! We had an all day P-day NYD and from 6-9 off on NYE. So, we met at a church building in Menan and watched a movie and played Murder in the Dark (basically like Werewolves) and watched....THE LEGO MOVIE. Best movie ever. Everyone in the zone quotes it now. But, the game was really fun. You could tell it was getting late, people were tired, and we needed to go home because the last game we played, everyone was yelling, getting mad, etc. It's ok, though. We had so much fun.

We were super low on miles towards the end of the month, so we had to walk around a lot. On new years eve, we parked our car at a members house and knocked doors for like, 4 hours. It was not my favorite....but it was really cool when we were going in a house to see Uncle Jim and Jimmy coming up to the porch! i wasn't expecting that. 

I'm kind of glad the holidays are over now. We haven't taught that many lessons and haven't done as much because of the holidays. It's good to be back in the swing of things.

Transfer calls are this week! I've been in ucon for nearly 4.5 months. I might be transferred...i don't really know at this point. No one ever really knows. We'll see what happens and you'll know next week!

Last night was a bit crazy. Our two recent converts hadn't been confirmed yet because the Ucon building heater was broken and church at that building was cancelled. But, we got a call from the AP's at around 5 and they asked us to do the confirmation that night at their home. What. So we made some calls, scrambled a bit, and they were able to be confirmed that night at their home. It was so crazy how that was able to happen.

That's about it that happened this week. Have a good week!

It has been VERY cold this past week!! 

Just the sisters on Christmas - and Morgan is wearing a Blink 182 t-shirt.  How Morgan of her.

This is an addendum from Morgan's Mom:  On New Year's Eve, Morgan's Aunt Sara and I were texting and she mentioned that her husband Jim and son Jim were driving past Ucon.  Jim Jr. is a student at BYU-I and the Jims had driven out there.  They were currently on their way from Rexburg to Payette to see Jim's Mom/Grandma (should that be Jims'?).  They said they were going to look for Morgan.  I told Sara to tell them that she would be driving a burgundy Subaru.  THEY FOUND IT.  Next, they found her!!!  Happy New Year!!

Christmas! - December 29, 2014

This week was christmas! It was an awesome week. We had a lot of great things happen. 

First, I should let you know...I drove into a ditch this week. On accident. We missed the turn to a lesson's house, and we were just going to turn around...and I forgot there was a ditch right there. So I drove into it. We were stuck. Not fun at all. But, not a minute later, a member drove past and had chains in his truck so he pulled us out. But, the lady who's house we were in front of got scared and called the police on us because she thought we were scary and were going to rob her. So, I drive in to a ditch, and had the police called on me. All in 15 minutes. Oops.

Driving in ditches, cops being called.

We had a baptism on Saturday! We've been teaching Johanna and Kaiden since early October and it was so so so awesome to see them be baptized. They were really excited. They would remember so much of what we taught them, it was awesome. Like, we asked them this past week why church was so important, and they said to take the bread and water. We taught that like, months ago. It's just so amazing to see someone you taught all the way get baptized. During one lesson this week, Kaiden said to his friend, "You really need to come listen to this, they're teaching some really good things about God." Dang. That was cool. I've never had people say that about us before.

In the Zone on Christmas

Christmas and Christmas Eve was fun. On Christmas eve, we went caroling with our zone in Rigby. It was so nice to go and spread happiness that way. It was freezing, but we had a lot of fun. On Christmas, we had two dinners we went to, and then we had a zone get together that night. We watched real movies again! We watched How to Train Your Dragon 2 and Maleficent. We just laughed and joked the entire time. After, we had a big snowball fight. I like snowball fights. 

It's been snowing like crazy this week. I LOVE IT. My companion, not so much. Haha. It's all good. I love my companion, though. Sister Warren is so awesome. She's a hard worker and we get along really, really well. 

Anyway, have an awesome week! Love you!