Welcome to McCammon, population...no one.

I thought Ucon was small? Yeah. No. Not even close. Ucon was a thriving metropolis compared to Marsh Valley. 

So, in my new area, we cover every small town from McCammon on down to Swan Lake. We have Lava Hot Springs (pronounced Laava, if you say it normal, the locals get mad..), McCammon (only cowboys live here), Arimo (population 300), Virginia (no one actually lives here), Downey (it has 2 gas stations!!!), and Swan Lake (I think 10 houses are there). So. Yeah. It's a beautiful area though! It's so cool. There's just nothing there...hahaha. But that's ok. We cover a stake and a half (Arimo stake and the McCammon part of McCammon stake) and there's so much to do. There's basically no work going on in Arimo stake right now, and there's not much to go off of. There aren't many records and stuff, so we're basically whitewashing into that part of the stake. So. There's SO MUCH to do. It's going to be fun :)

Anyway, I'm super stoked for tomorrow. Bob's getting baptized!!! I'm soooo so so excited. 

Pocatello was dang hard to leave. I miss it already. It was hard to say bye to some of the people here. Friends, other missionaries, my compa...yeah. It sucked. But. I'm supposed to be here for a reason, so I'll stay in McCammon.

Hmm. What else? We set a baptism date with a 92 year old lady in one of our wards this week. She's so....grumpy. But. She wants to be baptized, so that's cool! It's for October 15th, her birthday. So. Yeah. There's that.

anyway, that's what's going on this week. Love you!

Then I emailed her really quick and reminded her that she gave me no information about her new companion!!  She responded:

Her name is sister Hansen, she's been out six weeks longer than me and She's from Georgia! Another georgia comp haha

oh goodness we have sooooooooooooooo much work to do. there's absolutely nothing going on in arimo stake right now. But we have a good plan and we're going to baptize people there!

Bob Hensley's baptism is tomorrow. I am SO EXCITED!!!!!!!! I get to go back for it. Bob has the coolest story. Thank you so much for praying for him.

It smells like pumpkin and burnt chicken - September 21, 2015

Quote attributed to one of my favorite companions and one of the best people I've met on my mission, Hannah Wooten.

So. Transfers. They're whitewashing our area and I'm going to McCammon. Wooten is going to Ammon. I do not want to leave Tyhee. I don't want to leave my companion. I absolutely do not want to leave Pocatello. This town, this dinky, dirty, old town, is my favorite place in the entire world. We got calls on Thursday around 4 and I sobbed on the couch for an hour. I don't want to leave at all. This has been the most fun, most enjoyable, greatest six weeks of my life. I love Pocatello with everything I have and it literally feels like my heart is being ripped out and smashed to pieces. Well, not really. But. Yeah. That's what transfers this go around feel like. And I only have four left. They go by so fast. I'm going to miss the everliving heck out of Pocatello, Sister Wooten, all my friends here, the people in my area, Bob (who's doing great, by the way!!!), all that stuff. Yeah. That's kind of how I feel right now. 

But you know, I'm grateful for the time I had here. I didn't exactly enjoy Poky west. So I feel like Tyhee was my second chance at loving Pocatello and I did it this time around. I learned how to love something that I didn't want to. So I'm incredibly grateful for that. I'm grateful for everyone I've met here. I'm grateful for all the companions I've had here. I'm grateful for my other missionary friends I have here. I love the Hermanas, the north sisters, everyone. I love this place, and Tyhee has definitely made my mission. It's been my favorite area. 

On a different, not so depressing note...

Bob is doing so well! I'll be able to go to his baptism!! He asked me to play violin at it. So. I have to go now :) Haha. We finished lesson four with him yesterday and went over the baptism interview questions. He passed with flying colors :) At least, with us. So all he has to do is be taught the last lesson, actually have his real interview, and he's set. Guys, he's made so much progress and it's been one of the coolest miracles to see on my mission. I've loved being a small part of that. We didn't really do anything, but it was cool to be a part of. 

Anyway. Wish me luck this week. It's going to be hard to leave. 

Love you!

"Every Country Song sounds the same...

It consists of about 6 things - a girl, beer, tractors, fishing, momma, and something about a railroad."

- Sister Wooten

September 7, 2015  "Did I tell you about the time I shut down a 6 lane freeway?"

Quote attributed to Sister Brown. She's funny. She's one of the spanish sisters in Pocatello.

Anyway, this week has been a pretty good one! So, the past few weeks, we've been teaching a 76 year old man named Bob. Bob's wife is a member, but less active. Last year on Easter, she wanted to go to church, so he went with her. And he's been going with her ever since! Missionaries have taught him for a while, but he just started progressing a few weeks ago. Yesterday, we were teaching him about the Gospel of Jesus Christ (faith, repentance, baptism, the gift of the holy ghost, and enduring to the end). And....HE SET HIS OWN BAPTISM DATE!!! He just brought it up himself and asked if he could do that! Uhhh...ABSOLUTELY. So he's getting baptized on the 29th at 5:00!!! If you could, and I would seriously appreciate it, pray your guts out for him. He needs it. He's an awesome, awesome man. I'm so excited for him.

This week we also visited another part member family. The wife is a member, and they have 4 children all under the age of four. They all used me as a human jungle gym. Good gracious. At one point, I had one kid on my arm, pointing a toy gun into my eye, another was on my other arm, sawing it off with a plastic toy saw, and another one was hanging onto my ankles. It was so funny. They were adorable. I asked the four year old how old he was, and he responded, "Nine o'clock." HAHAHAHA. I laughed so hard. He was also really intrigued by my watch. I wish I could have as much energy as they had...good gracious. 

OH OH OH I burned stuff for my year mark this week! I had a holey shirt (seriously, those holes were huuuuuge) and my cast because that thing STANK to high heaven. Good gracious. It was disgusting. So I burned them in celebration of spending one year as a missionary. BEST YEAR EVER!

We're going to Yellowstone next week! We're leaving at like, 5 in the morning and we'll get back around 6. I'm so excited. I'll probably email at some point during that day, but I don't exactly know. Anyway. Love you guys! I love my life, I love the work, and I love the gospel. It's the best and I'm excited for these last six months I have. 

September 14

Quote attributed to mylovely compa, Sister Wooten. (the quote is the title of this entry)

This is an early email! We're on our way to Yellowstone at the moment. I am SO EXCITED. We woke up at four and left by five. We're on our way to Jackson right now. So that's going to be fine!

Also this week a sister who I trained for a week cut and dyed my hair. She was a cosmetologist before the missionary she did a DANG good job! I'm blonde now and I look fabulous. 

So this week was pretty awesome! A lot of cool things happened. We got to do a big service project at a farm and I picked sweet corn! Oh man. That was SO much fun. We were riding over to the corn field in a little trailer thing, and I was sitting next to Sister Vargas (coolest person ever) and we were eating raw corn, laughing our heads off, getting mean mugged by then kid sitting in front of us. And then we picked a ton of corn and we got to take some home. I love corn. 

Bob is doing AWESOME. we taught him yesterday and he lesson went really well. He is getting really excited. It's cool to see this happen, but we literally did nothing. Nothing. It wasn't us that helped Bob get to this point. A bunch of people from the ward have talked about it to us, but we haven't done anything except teach him. It's not me, it's the Lord. And that's the best part :) 

It's been a great week. I love my life, I have the best friends, I know the church is true. I love yall!

Morgan

Ps. Sorry about the yall....when you spend 24/7 with someone with a strong southern accent, it happens.

Morgan's new, blond makeover

One the way to Yellowstone

On the way to Yellowstone with Sister Wooten

Someone texted me this picture this week.  I have no other explanation!!

"I could spend eternity with him! He's not my first cousin..." - September 1, 2015

Quote attributed to my companion, Sister Wooten. She's my favorite. I love that kid. 

I didn't email yesterday because we had a zone conference/mission tour thing in which a member from the quorum of the seventy came and talked to us.

This past week was kinda momentous. I'm sending this email to several people because I have a ton of thoughts about that..so yeah. 

I've spent the last year of my life as a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints. And I'll be honest with you, it's been the hardest year of my life. I've never cried so much (ha! see? i'm not a robot!!!), felt so low, been through so much heartache, yet I've never felt so much happiness, I've never felt so loved, and I've never felt like I've been doing something so incredibly worthwhile in my entire life. This has literally been the best year of my life. Not only that, it's been the best year for my life. I'm glad I've got six more to be able to give everything I have and work as hard as I can. I honestly can't believe it's gone this fast. 

I'll be honest again, I really didn't like being a missionary until about 5 or so months ago. About that time, a wise friend counseled me to just forget about myself. I did just that, and I've never been happier. I made the decision to just work, and I completely forgot about myself and I forgot about the whole decision until like 4 weeks after that. I still make mistakes, I still make a lot of mistakes. I make mistakes like, about 1000 times a day. But I'm getting there. I'm working on it. And I have the time to work on my weakness by forgetting about myself. And that's a miracle. 

I absolutely love being a missionary. I love the gospel. I love my life. I feel so sorry for everyone who doesn't have my life, because my life is AWESOME. My mission has completely changed my life. This year has been the absolute best year ever. I'm so tired, all the time. I'm so flipping tired. But I'm so happy! It's so weird. I'm so stupid happy all the time.

Anyway. Those are my thoughts on being out a year.

So here's the stuff from the week. 

So......we picked up a cat on Saturday night. Hahahaha. After dinner on Saturday, we saw a kitten by a fence and I called to it..and she came to me. Wooten told me to pick it up, so I did..and we took it with us. We drove off. We fled the scene of the crime. We kept her with us for a few hours and then took her back. See, it's against the rules to keep pets, but we didn't keep her...so..yeah. That works. She was so adorable though. I miss that kitty.

To celebrate my year mark, my comp and I decided to do something incredibly stupid. We went to Pizza Hut (mistake #1) and ordered this pizza with basically pigs in a blanket as a crust (mistake #2). And then we ate a slice (mistake #3-7). I highly recommend NEVER doing that. EVER. EVER. Don't ever do that. We had fun though....so that's what counts. 

I can't remember too much..it's been a long week and I'm still pretty tired. But we had fun. 

Love you! ALSO HAPPY ANNIVERSARY MOM AND DAD!

ONE YEAR CELEBRATION!!

This steak is as big as my head!

Zone Conference

We found a kitty!!