Week 8: My Christmas Shenanigans

Traditional Christmas gift picture

Monday-I am grateful to vent to my family and for being protected by angels.

Tuesday-I am grateful for small reminders of home.

Wednesday-I am eternally grateful for my family, being together forever, and the strength they give me.

Thursday-I am grateful for the comfort of the spirit when times are rough, my MP3 player, and to have been raised in Utah.

Friday-I am grateful for messages from friends, volleyball, and taking my shoes off.

Saturday-I am grateful to be blessed everyday-cars, sun, and a new investigator at the very end of the day.

Sunday-I am grateful for spiritual experiences to fall back on.

My Christmas started earlier than I thought it would with about a million fireworks going off at exactly 12 Christmas Eve night. It woke me up real fast and then I realized that it was Christmas and that I was in Brazil and went back to sleep.

My Christmas was a solid 90 something degrees, quite an interesting Christmas. We had some amazinggg barbecue for lunch and just talked with members all day at their houses. I was able to give the Christmas message at a members house and that was awesome. We ate so much food. I came up with a great phrase to describe a missionaries night. I'm not going to translate so you'll have to figure it out yourself hahaha.

Chorar, orar, dormi

Yeah that's all I have to say.

The Relief Society gave us a huuuuuuuuge box just full of candy and treats, so guess what, I am not starving yet, nor ever.

Update on the rat: has returned and took revenge on Christmas, he got into my bread bag and just took like 2 massive bites out of 2 of the 3 rolls I had. I wasn't happy. I need to kill that thing asap because my comp is too scared of it and doesn't think that its a problem.

Also they have wafers here all the time and I didn't realize how much I love those things but now I have a wafers drawer in my desk, so that is great.

Turns out we got another Christmas present and it was the sun!! It hasn't rained in days! Well it's a good and a bad thing, ya know but I like to see the good and I am always thinking of how tan I am getting, wahoo! 

I got my first denial for baptism, so that was great, I guess, no not really. We are pretty sad for her now.

We have a new investigator and it was pretty amazing how we found him. A super old contact book that hadn't been updated for like a couple years and we have been trying to find the people in it and just update it, was our only source to find old referrals. We only had one more hour Saturday before we returned home and we had never had one of the contacts from this book lead to a lesson. We get to this guys house, JOSE, and it's this super nice old guy and we talk to him and are about to ask if we can come back later and teach him but he invites us in to teach right away!! Rosa and I are pumped and we teach the Restoration and he is super focused and receptive on everything. I taught about Joseph Smith but I don't know how well he understood me. He took the pamphlet and said that he was going to study it and we are going back to teach him more Tuesday. He has a big family but they were all busy running around the house and what not, so hopefully we can get them to sit down and listen to our lessons too. After we left his house Rosa and I were soooo happy. The joy of bringing others unto Christ.

Our neighbor, who is a member, keeps on smoking marijuana outside our bedroom window, so that's pretty annoying but we just close the door and turn on the fan and it's all good.

Ya know how Old Town Road was a song that was played for like maybe a month or two, well it is still going very strong here in Brazil and everyone loves it, and they have since it has come out, LOCOS! Entao nao bom por e Espirito

I miss Cafe Rio burritos.

I got myself a ukulele, so that's pretty relaxing and fun, now I just need to learn how to sing hahahaha.

It's the thought that counts

email me!!

lmorrison@missionary.org

Love,

Elder Morrison

Week 7: 1st week, 1st baptism

Pancakes for my last day in the CTM!

Monday- I am very very grateful to learn from the spirit.

Tuesday-I am grateful for tender mercies;miracles.

Wednesday-I am grateful for organizing and recognizing when we need the spirit more.

Thursday-I am grateful for happy endings.

Friday-I am grateful for the missionaries in my district.

Saturday-I am grateful to recognize what I have been taught.

Sunday-I am grateful for the sacrament and learning about the missionary song ^How Can I Be^.

All the new missionaries with President and Sister Marsh.

Turns out saying goodbye to your first district is very hard and sad and leaving the MTC is sad, but it's ok because now I have the real stuff.

My comp is Elder Rosa from somewhere in Brazil, I forgot where and he is pretty great and speaks good English.

President and Sister Marsh.

Elder Rosa

On the first day in the field so much happened. There was 1 miracle and we taught 2 lessons.

So apparently there has just always been this giant rat that lives in the oven and my companion will never touch it, I didn't believe it at first and was just kind of like whatever but now I believe and am going to kill it, when I told him that I wanted to kill it he was like no, it will kill you. The number of lives that should be in our house is 2, me and my companion but nopeeee we have many many lives in our house, Lizards, a massive rat and countless cockroaches, we kill multiple cockroaches everyday.

Well never mind a president came by and my comp told him about the massive rat that lived in the oven, and he took one look at it and said this is trash, Throw it out and I'll get you a new one. So sadly I never got to really get rid of the rat.

Oven with the rat.

Leaving my mark in Brazil. Literally

Someone spelled my name wrong.

Really short door

How short is this ceiling?

My 1st baptism!!

I baptized a girl named Gleice, she is 22 years old and is married to a guy who has never been to church, so hopefully we can teach him and get him baptized. She really seemed ready for the Gospel. It was a pure miracle that I got through all the words for the baptism. I am very grateful for the opportunity. She had already been taking the lessons from my comp and I was just lucky enough to come in at the right time to have a baptism in my first week!! It is interesting how people are just like yeah baptism isn't for me but it's for my brother or my wife or my best friend, like well actually baptism is for everyone Ç) We walk past a Jehovah~s Witness church on the way to ours and we sort of compete for the same people. We see them out ^proselyting^all the time. They just stand on the side of a street with flyers sort of thing, its wack. Anyways we have a baptismal date for Alemma who's daughter got baptized the week before I got here. 

A interesting thing here is that people have nice phones and nice tv's and nice cars, BUT really bad living conditions, it is so weird. Also we were walking in the street and we see this dude like dance walking or something but he was jamming out to whatever he was listening too. After we passed him, we looked back and he was full on like salsa dancing with himself in the middle of the street, oh Brazil, what a place.

Gleice!

Jennifer, Elder Rosa, me and Gleice

Gorgeous sunsets!

Sunday was good and I thought that I would have to give a talk but luckily because it's a special sacrament meeting I am giving one next week. All the members brought food for after the sacrament meeting and it was amazinggg, so much food and it was so good.

I have felt so cut off from home and the real world because I don't have access to the internet;computers like I did in the MTC, and we don't have phones... so that transition has been difficult but I have been strengthened as I focus on serving others, In fact I was in a members house and they were drying dishes so I grabbed a rag and started helping and they told me to stop but I said that I am here to serve, I like this and all they said was true and then they let me help and gave me a better rag hahaha.

Also good news I am pretty darn sure that we will be getting smart phones in the coming months so I'm hoping that it is sooner than later! Every single person has a smartphone here, like even the hobos so hopefully the missionaries are next in line.

I learn so much everyday it is crazy and my Portuguese continues to progress even though sometimes I feel like I know NADA!

FELIZ NATAL- I hope you have a very good Christmas full of good time spent with Family and the cold haha. love y'all. Focus on Christ and everything is always good.

My first week has lasted a lifetime but that's alright.

It's the thought that counts.

PS I am playing soccer with some Brazilian kids in a few hours, wish me luck

Love,

Elder Morrison.

Week 6: I'M OUTTTTTT of the MTC hallelujah!!!

Campinas Temple

Bathroom Selife

Wait how tall is this instructor?!

Elder Morrison and Elder Morrison

City of Sao Paulo

Sunset for the win

Howdy everyone,

Thursday-I am grateful for my family and naps on the bus.

Friday-I am grateful for my teachers and reminders of home.

Saturday-I am grateful for my friends that are missionaries and my older brother being a missionary.

Sunday-I am very very grateful for the power of the Melchizedek Priesthood that I hold.

I slept for 2 hours total on the bus rides to and from the Campinas temple, that was amazing. I read 2 Nephi 16:8 and felt connected to the last part of the verse "Here am I; send me". I am very grateful for the scriptures and for the spiritual nourishment and strength that they give me.

Please listen to "Love is Spoken Here" for me, thanks.

My only Christmas wish from you is an easy one, send me a picture of you and tell me about your day, I would appreciate it very much :)

lmorrison@missionary.org

So I might have solved the weather here, sunny/cloudy until 2:30, then it gets dark and then rain storm at 3:30 until like 6 and then everything is just wet for awhile and then there is a sunset somewhere in there and then its dark, yeah I think that's how it goes. Oh and this cycle changes every 3 days, I think.

We gave and received blessings as a district and it was absolutely amazing, the spirit was so strong and there is no other feeling like giving a blessing directly from God. I had the opportunity to give 2 blessings!! I am so very grateful for the priesthood and to know that this is the true church and that we have Christ's power on earth.

por favor ler Alma 26:27

I am very grateful for my time here at the MTC but I am so excited to get out to the field and teach real people and have good food and meet other missionaries and use what I know.

It's the thought that counts.

Love,

Elder Morrison

Week 5: My companheiro ate a piece of paper

Tiny track to run around.

Lots of meat, and my own concoction of soda.

Ice cream cones for win.

Thursday-I am grateful for support from my family and friends

Friday-I am grateful to be able to read emails everyday and for blessings the Lord gives to me.

Saturday-I am so so so grateful that hard days pass and for google photos

Sunday-I am grateful for the testimonies of my FAMILY and friends.

Monday-I am grateful for church music and the Christmas DEVO.

Tuesday-I am grateful for successful lessons.

Wednesday-I am grateful for ice cream cones and happy people.

Pdays are great and talking to my family and friends is even better.

So the title of this group email is explained like this: We heard that we had to teach 3 TRC's each day for multiple days in a row. I felt like it was a lot but I knew that everything was going to  be ok, we just needed to prepare. Anyways my comp sat there and then ripped off a piece of paper from his notebook and started chewing on it. A lot of weird things happen in my district so I was just like why are you eating paper and all he said was its fine. A couple of long seconds later he rips off another piece of paper and starts eating it and just stares into the distance, I don't know what to do, so I tell him to stop eating paper again and he just like ignores me or says something that dismisses my comment and then swallows that piece and rips off a new one. Anyways he keeps on going until he finished that piece of paper, I just sit there thinking what is wrong. I tried with all the focus I could to sit there and prepare for lessons. Everyone knows your not supposed to eat paper. Later when I talk about how he went crazy and ate paper he completely denies that that happened OR he says that he was just very stressed. For you future missionaries out there please do not humiliate your companion and eat paper for 10 minutes.

I am officially more than a month into my mission! and nearly done with the MTC, I am ready to get out, don't quite know if I am ready to teach and speak Portuguese but I know that the Lord will be with me through it all, it is when I choose to rely on him that I am most happy.

So there are a ton of changes as I have been saying and basically they are talking away like all of the strict rules sort of and making everything more of an agency sort of thing, like you decide what missionary you are going to be, I personally really like it because I haven't liked being micromanaged all the time. I am excited for the field and to be a missionary in a time of such big changes.

Keep the Sabbath day holy! It can be such a blessing to you if you use it correctly, use Sundays to focus on heaven. They are my absolute favorite days...if I could talk to my family haha. Sunday is the day to refocus on what is important and be out of the world for a little bit. 

2 Nephi 5:27- Live happy

I saw stars here for the first time so that is good.

I taught a tonnnn this week, like 3 different lessons a day for different people. The lessons I taught on Monday were not too good and we weren't very prepared and my Portuguese was just not understandable. Tuesday was a different story, I felt to pray before we started preparing for the lessons and so we did and we got answers right away on what to teach it was amazing! The lessons on Tuesday were astronomically better than Mondays and my Portuguese was understandable and the lessons just flowed very well, it was very relieving after the difficult teaching day on Monday. I leave to the mission field on Tuesday! 

I watched the Christmas Devo and it was soooo good, I loved the songs that the choir sang and the message of how I am able to give people the best gift ever. The gift that keeps on giving, The gift of the Savior! I hope that you all recognize the real meaning of Christmas and find more ways to serve others.

The rain here is pretty sweet, there is just a big crack of thunder out of nowhere and then it is pouring buckets outside. It is pretty crazy and kinda scary but ya know what it's not too bad.

I had 3 ice cream cones on Wednesday so that was a big win.

It's the thought that counts!

Love,

Elder Morrison 

Handmade leather scripture cover.

Week 4: My first week having no hair and I've gone through 2 pens already

Singing new favorite Primary song.

In Portuguese too

Tuesday-I am grateful for exciting missionary news and hearing from family and friends.

Wednesday-I am grateful to feel loved by my family.

Thursday(THANKSGIVING)-I am grateful to be a missionary in very exciting times.

Friday-I am grateful for busy days and the Light of Christ.

Faturday-I am grateful for apostles and prophets and friendships with other missionaries that aren't in my district.

Sunday-I am grateful for relaxing sundays. 

Monday-I am grateful for the answers to my prayers.

Tuesday-I am grateful for being happy and content.

Wednesday-I am grateful for new announcements/changes and accessing Google photos and the spirit. (good day)

Sao Paulo temple was pretty sweet but I fell asleep again and then when we were in class just killing time I fell asleep on the hard floor for 30 minutes. So basically everyone is tired all the time.

We got Braziliam roommates and they are pretty funny. One of them is 24 years old and is like as tall as my little sister, it's crazyyyy!

First holiday away from home and it was ok! We actually got turkey with our rice and beans today! I got to hear Elder Neil L. Anderson give a Thanksgiving day DEVO from Provo and it was awesome! "Most blessing are better seen looking back" that was such a great quote I took away from the DEVO. Having an attitude of gratitude is KEY here at the MTC :) So saving up all the candy that I get everyday here was a bad idea, I did not feel very good because of all the candy I ate on Thanksgiving but oh well hahaha. I only have one more Thanksgiving to miss away from home.

TRC's are going good and we got Vinicius (our fake investigator) committed to baptism! Even though he is not a real investigator the spirit is still real and I definitely felt guided during our lessons to invite him to be baptized. My Portuguese has gotten so much better, holy cow! We got to turn on the lights at the MTC and that was pretty cool!

The Gift of Tongues is real and the Light of Christ is in all things.

We got to go out and proselyte Saturday morning! It was pretty rough tbh but it's alright. We talked to 3 guys in 2 hours and got one referral out of it. One dude was Christian and was said, "we have the same Jesus" and I'm like well yeah but... The 2nd guy was super nice and we got his info! The 3rd guy we talked to at a stoplight and he was nice but he was in a rush so he blasted off when the light turned green. I am amazed at the progress that  I have made with Portuguese and I know that it's not all me!  Open your mouth and the spirit will speak.

We had 4 DEVO's this week so that was something. I am officially old at the MTC now!

There's tons of changes at the MTC right now it's crazy!!

I realized that since they dont have fall here that means that there is always flowers, it is so cool and pretty. There is just a constant slow cycle of new flowers.

So much happens in the MTC everyday holy cowwww, but I finally got to watch the F2F about the new youth program and I love it! The new primary song is my favorite and much better in Portugeuse, well to me atleast. My pdays get changed pretty often out here because of all the new changes so its awkward when I send emails but its all good, Twas a good time. 

(shoutout to Sarah for being in the youth choir and Dustin for practically running the whole F2F haha jk but well done)

It's the thought that counts.