Tyhee and Halfway There! - May 25, 2015

So, the first week in my new area has been really good. I really like Tyhee. Not going to lie, it's a heck of a lot different than Poky West, but I like it a lot. It's more spread out and stuff like that. We even moved this week from a member's house to an apartment down in Chubbuck. So, i packed everything up, got transferred really far away, unpacked a bit, packed back up again, moved to an apartment, and then unpacked everything again. I really hope they don't move us soon/I get transferred at the end of this transfer

Can you believe in two days I hit my halfway point? I literally cannot. Good grief, it's gone by so fast. Nine months down, nine to go :)

My new companion is Sister Boyd and she is literally like my favorite person right now. We stay up....late ish...talking and I really enjoy being around her. So that's good.

But yeah, this week was super busy. Especially with getting everything ready to go for transfers. Sister Fa'oa and I had a super busyTuesday. We were able to see Audrey the last time and teach her the last lesson. She had these amazing questions, I can't even remember all of them because they were so in depth and in detail. But she is so ready and I can't wait for her baptism this weekend! Even though it doesn't count for our numbers (and I don't really care about that, honestly), she's one of my favorite converts. :) Teaching her was literally one of the most fantastic experiences of my mission so far.

Anyway, it's been a good week. I like my new area a lot. I love my new companion. And I'm ready to work hard these next few weeks.

Love you!

Sister Boyd - New Companion! 

Dawn and Sister Fetcher 

Audrey and Paige

Farewell Sister Fa'oa! 

The Snyder Family 

More New Things - May 17, 2015

So, first things first, I'm getting transferred on Wednesday to Tyhee. It's literally 2 miles down the road from where I'm at now. But, I'm excited because that's the stake Karen lives in! So i'm happy about that. I wasn't expecting to be transferred so soon, too. And we're whitewashing out and elders are coming into our area. So there' that!

Anyway, Audrey is doing AWESOME. We basically ended up teaching her everything this past week. We were able to set a date with her for the 30th of this month! On Tuesday, we sat down with her and she said how much she wants to be baptized. So, she is awesome. She's basically looking at baptism as a lifelong commitment, which is great. She isn't doing this just because everyone else is. She's doing this because this is what she wants. Her parents aren't members, but they're really supportive of what she wants to do. We are so excited for her. After nothing going on for the past two and a half months, this is a huge miracle.

Hmm. What else?

We took one of our investigators to a fireside last night...and she had had a..."few" glasses of wine beforehand. Oh goodness. That lady is so..interesting. I had to really try not to laugh at the fireside last night. 

Anyway, love you guys!

Good News - May 4, 2015

So. Good news. I'm learning Tongan. Bad news? I have an accent. But, that's ok. I'm still learning. Someday, I need to go to Tonga and try out my horrible Tonga. Which might be bad...because I can only say about 3 phrases. 

But yeah. It's been kinda a crazy week. We've been really busy and stuff, which is good. 

We met this awesome potential investigator at church. She's 12 years old, and is dang cool. I invited her to be baptized, and her response was, "Well..I don't know, because I'm not sure I have the money to do that." We got a kick out of that, and explained to her that it won't cost any money. Haha. 

This week we went on exchanges and I went with another sister to ISU campus, which was interesting. It was weird being on a university campus while I wasn't a student. But, it went pretty well.

Anyway, I can't really think of anything else...it's just been a crazy week. 

OH. Next Sunday, I'll probably be able to skype home. I'll probably go around 3 or 4 my time. Sometime after church meetings. I'll probably call you before or something. So heads up about that.

So yeah. Ofa lahi atu!

Morgan

Small Rays of Sunshine - April 27, 2015

So this week kind of mirrored last week, but we had some small rays of sunshine that made it better. So that's what I'll be talking about this week.

RoS #1 - We found a new investigator named Alyssa! She is AWESOME. I love that kid. She's 12 years old, and she is literally one of my favorite people ever. She wants to be baptized, she's had kind of a crazy life story (she told us all this stuff within 10 minutes of talking to her), but she's awesome. I can't wait to see her on Tuesday.

RoS #2 - We taught an awesome lesson to one of our newer investigators, Dawn. She was super open. She wants to grow her relationship with God. We also helped her pull weeds this week. So that was fun.

RoS #3 - I got to teach Sister Fa'oa how to use a lawnmower! It was fun. There's a lady in our ward that takes us around a lot and goes out with us to lessons, and we noticed that her lawn was getting in need of mowing. So we asked her if we could mow it, she said yes, and Sister F had never used a lawnmower before. So I got to teach her and we got to do service for someone that helps us a lot. So that was cool.

RoS # 4 - WE GOT A CAR THIS WEEK!!!! After weeks of not being able to regularly go out to Fort Hall to visit one of our wards, we finally got a car! We are stoked about that. The Assistants called and I about did a backflip. It's a 2014 Subaru Legacy, kind of like the one we got in Ucon right before I got transferred. It's lovely.

RoS #5 - I got to play my violin in church this week! I told the sister in the 52nd ward in charge of music that I played violin and I would love to play in church and I think she about jumped out of her skin with excitement. I played "Nearer My God, To Thee" and it went really well :) It's fun to be able to share your talents.

So, that was the highlights of the week. If you spend more time focusing on the positives rather than what wasn't fun in the week, it makes it seem better and it makes you feel better about it. So. There you go. 

Anyway, have a good week! Send me pictures!

Morgan

A little girl who likes to come out and greet the missionaries!

Sister Brough came to visit.  She is recouping from the car accident.

So, this week.... April 20, 2015

...was the longest week of my life. No joke. I think it was one of the more difficult weeks of my mission. I mean, some cool things happened and stuff, but it just seemed like every lead we had just crumbled and everything we tried to didn't work out. But, it happens, I guess. 

I did eat buffalo and lamb this week, so there's that.

And I learned that Americans do weird things. We went on exchanges with a sister from Australia and apparently our light switches are upside down, we have an abnormal sense of patriotism, and we are too enthusiastic about sporting events. We laughed a lot about that last one, because I am ridiculously too enthusiastic about things like football. 

I get to speak in one of our wards next Sunday AND I'm playing violin in another ward. That's what happens when you tell people you're willing to speak and play violin in sacrament meeting. 

One of our bishops gave us this scripture in Genesis 18:14. It asks if anything is too hard for the Lord. And right now, while things might seem a bit difficult (really, we have nothing to go off of..), nothing is too difficult for the Lord. Even though everything we've tried isn't working out, it will. Eventually. We all have our specific trials and tests personally designed for us to go through. Even though this is probably one of the hardest parts of my mission, I've never prayed more, I've never tried my hardest to be obedient, and I've never worked so hard in my entire life. Nothing is too hard for the Lord when you're on His errand. Even though this week was hard, it's changed my life. 

I'm sorry this email isn't exactly that long. Thanks for everything you've done for me, I really appreciate it.

Love,

Morgan

April in Idaho - the next day was sunny and 70! 

Sister Fa'oa and Sister Towers

Birthday Week - April 13, 2015

So, birthday week. I opened the package you sent and i saw icing, so I knew one box had to be cake. So I opened it early. I made the cake and took it to the transfer site and everyone sang me and another elder (it was his birthday too) happy birthday. That was fun! Haha. Honestly, I forgot it was my birthday halfway through my birthday. It was good, though. We went out to Fort Hall to our ward out there and we met with one of the bishops to find people we could go see. It was good that it wasn't focused on me though. It was a good day.

Happy Birthday to Morgan and Elder Clark

We had transfers this week and I got my new companion. Her name is sister Fa'oa, and she's from Tonga. Like, straight from Tonga. She's been out about a year. She's awesome and I'm really excited to work with her. We have a tonnnnnnnnnn of work ahead of us though. Our area is...not doing the best. We don't have that many people to teach, so we're doing a lot of finding. Tonight, a lot of missionaries from our zone are coming to our area to help us with that, so hopefully it will be good. But, being in charge isn't my favorite. But it's also helping me grow a lot. So that's good.

So yesterday, something cool happened. I was praying hardcore all day that we'd be able to find someone to teach at church. We went to one of our wards, and during testimonies, we got up and spoke, and as I finished and went to go sit down, the bishop handed me a piece of paper that said "I have someone for you to visit and teach." SCORE!!!!!!! I was SO STOKED about that. We're going to visit hertonight. We tried last night, but she wasn't home. Her angry separated husband (I don't understand that situation) was there and she was at work. But still. Awesome story.

Anyway, have a good day! love you!

morgan

HI!!!!!!! - April 6, 2015

So...General Conference was AWESOME. That's still on my mind. Man. So many good talks. I looooved loved loved Elder Holland's talk. It was amazing. It helped me to understand that we are never ever ever supposed to think that we're alone in this world. We weren't meant to struggle by ourselves. We weren't meant to have no one to lean on. Christ was sent to this world, for us. He was supposed to die for us, so we could lean on Him. I need to reread that talk because man, it was sooo so good. 

Anyway, what a busy week. We got transfer calls, and my companion is going to Blackfoot, and I'm staying in the area. My new companion is Sister Fa'oa, and she's from Tonga as well. Crazy stuff. So, that means I'll be in charge....uhhh. I'm not sure how I feel about that, especially because the area's struggling a bit. We have have haaaaaaveeeeee to find people to teach. It's a lot to do, but I have some ideas and some plans I want to accomplish so hopefully, we'll be able to find people.

Because of the incident with sisters getting hit, everyone thinks it was us. Some kids in our neighborhood left us Get Well cards in our door. People keep asking us if we're ok. Crazy stuff. But the sisters are doing ok. We visited them a lot this week. One went home for a while to recover (sad day) and one is staying in the mission but she's out of commission for a while. They're such hardcore sisters. Man. They're awesome. 

Morgan and Sister Kolo with the two sisters that were in the car accident

Anyway, my birthday is this week!!! I'm excited. It's going to be a good day, because I'm out here serving a mission. Really, that's all you need to have a good day. I'm really excited to be 22 though because it's two of the same number, and that sort of age only happens every 11 years. Ha. 

Have a good week!
Morgan 

On a hike in Pocatello with Sister Kolo

More hiking

During the email session, this happened.   

The Pocatello North District or Zone, or something.