Week 35: Feasting

Monday- I am grateful for basketball and being decisive.

Tuesday- I am grateful for the weather and my hair.

Wednesday- I am grateful for cards, being outside, being myself, and barefeet. 

Thursday- I am grateful for talking to my Mom, service, and piano books, The Prophet, and reading.

Friday- I am grateful for getting pranked and contentment.

Saturday- I am grateful for service, prayer, clouds, ENCHILADAS, the Prophet, Jesus, church buildings, driving, peace, and contentment.

Sunday- I am grateful for church, ribs, views, lakes, and answered prayers.

Helped out for the LAST free milk drive and that was kind of sad. It's been fun helping them!

This was the best food wise week of my mission!! Smoked kabobs, super tasty. Also we got enchiladas :) THEY WERE BETTER THAN THE KABOBS. I love Mexican food too much. A WHOLE pan of nachos like a huge one. Lastly, last night we got smoked ribs and baked beans. It was outstanding. I'm feeling very blessed. And everything was handmade and given by members 

I got my hair cut :(

 

We helped out with some service, which is my favorite!! We helped clean out from under a deck and then worked on building a house for Habitat for Humanity. I love serving.

We have been teaching an investigator named Mariah for awhile and we went over the 1st Vision and it was awesome to have an actual lesson, still over zoom, where the Spirit guided. It was awesome!!

It's been a learning week for me.

I miss frisbee and the mountains!

I finished the book, "Insights from a Prophets life" which is a biography of President Russell M. Nelson and this book was amazing! It strengthened my testimony of our living prophet today. I am so grateful for him and the blessing that he is to each of us. Here's one of my favorite quotes from it :)

"Throughout the rest of your life, your most difficult challenge will probably be to follow the prophet. There is going to be an increasing gap between his counsel and what the world insists is acceptable and reasonable...your greatest safety will be in following the prophet."

Also, the world is pretty much trash and I wish I could delete Facebook and just drive into the mountains but sadly I can't do either of those. I'm doing good though.

 

I'm super excited to run the Parley P Pratt Freedom Run on the 4th of July!

I'm grateful for my grateful list each day, this week looked pretty good.

We had some good adventures Saturday which included 2 service projects and a lady with dementia who walked into the church. I helped build a house and installed insulation and cut boards for the attic support system. The other service project was working at the JC pantry and going out and taking orders and bringing them their free food. It was fun and it got rainy. That took up most of our day and then we went to the church. After awhile a lady walked in and just wanted to walk around and talk to Jesus. She told us her whole life story like 4 times and got pretty angry that we don't let people come into our churches and talk to Jesus like the Catholics do. I explained multiple times that we aren't Catholic and that this is a different church. The point never got across and she didn't leave very happy and still just as confused as when she walked in there. Poor lady.

But, it also strengthened my testimony in our Prophet, he has made it so that we can pray wherever with our Home being the main place to do it. 

I had the privilege to give another blessing! :)

Hair cut

We had church finally!! It was so good to be back but kind of annoying the way they had everything set up. The best part is always the hymns for me and it was a little sad not to be able to sing, I'm a bad singer through and through, but singing the hymns, no matter what notes I'm singing bring the Spirit so strongly.

Love you all,

Elder Morrison

Bags for leaves

Habitat for Humanity

Nachos!!!

Lots of little ponds and rivers around here.

Week 34: Untitleable

Smiles for Christ

Tuesday- I am grateful for basketball, spikeball, and instruments.

Wednesday- I am grateful for my piercings, kool-aid, and practice.

Thursday- I am grateful for service, being tired, and charity.

Friday- I am grateful for happiness, miracles, stories, and LIFE.

Saturday- I am grateful for the Holy Ghost, serving, and Love.

Sunday- I am grateful for my Dad, answers, and happiness.

Wow I'm gonna start this one off with a story from Saturday. We went to the church to do some online finding and the phone that's in the back of the church rang. It has rung before but we've never gotten back there in time to answer it. 

So this time I book it down the hall and say hello this is The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and the lady on the other end said I need a priest and I said that I was a missionary serving for the church. She said that she needed an exorcism. She said something about a boy and how she keeps on having evil thoughts and said that she needs to make sure that she still has the Holy Spirit in her. I said that we would be happy to give her a blessing and teach her about how to always have the Spirit with her. I asked when we could stop by and she said right now. We hopped in the car and I got increasingly nervous as we got closer to her house.

Amanda was baptized 2 weeks ago.

I also thought about teaching her the Gospel of Jesus Christ which teaches about the Holy Ghost. She was waiting outside when we got there. We said a prayer in the car and got out and talked to her. I asked her to tell us a little more about what she's been feeling and she explained how there was a boy inside of her that was a demon and just makes her think evil things. She told us a story of a preacher who cast a devil out of a younger boy a couple months ago that she had heard about. She was going to Kansas City tomorrow to have this exorcism performed by this same preacher. She had cuts on the inside of the both of her wrists and it just made my heart ache. She said that she doesn't have schizophrenia, but we don't trust that. I explained what a blessing was and how we have authority to do it and how the blessing works. Elder Hobert gave an excellent blessing by the laying on of hands and she said that she felt calm and peaceful afterwards. I mentioned how that was the Spirit and then asked if we could share a message.

I felt prompted to teach The Restoration instead so that's what I went with. THIS IS WHEN IT GETS WEIRD. As I taught she got reallyyyy fidgety and she wouldn't keep eye contact and she kept on glancing around and she would glare at me. I asked her a question about if she knows about the prophets in the Bible and she said sorry can you say that again so I did and she didn't give any signs that she was listening. I explained about how Christ established His Church on the earth when He lived here. My comp asked if she got that and she said that the thing inside of her did NOT like what we were teaching. We asked if maybe she could just listen and she said ok. Elder Hobert picked up the lesson and she interrupted and gave a loud creepy growl at us along with the glaring and glancing. She said that the thing inside of her didn't like what we were sharing and then after a minute of silence she asked for another blessing.

Delivering lots of milk

We said sure and I offered to give it.  I was overcome with emotion and demanded what was inside of her to leave. I can barely remember the words I said. It was all from the Spirit. When I ended the blessing/demand? She just sat there and didn't say anything for awhile. Finally she said that she felt ok and calm. I said that we were going to go but that she could reach out to us at any time. My comp asked if we could give her a book and she said yes! I grabbed a Book of Mormon from the car and held it out to her and she said oh I'm Christian, not Mormon and I said we are Christian's too! She said no in the Bible it talks about not adding anything to these words. I asked her to try her Faith then and she ignored me. I testified of the Book of Mormon and that she could feel the same peace in the BOM as when we gave her a blessing. My voice was shaky and my eyes filled up with tears. She asked if I was ok and I said YES! I just know this book is true. She said no thanks and bye very promptly. When we got back in the car I asked my comp if that all just really happened and he assured me that it did and that I had the Spirit with me when I gave the blessing. Tears rolled down my cheeks as we drove away.

Another story is from Friday. We went for our daily walk at a park and as we started walking I said hey let's just walk on this sidewalk along the road instead of walking around the park multiple times. Elder Hobert said ok and off we went. One dude as he drove by actually gave us a thumbs down, I thought it was pretty funny. Anyways we walk out for 25 minutes and then as we were coming back a guy parked his car on the other side of the road ran across the street and asked if we have a book. I knew he was talking about the BOM and so I said not with us but we have some in our car that we can give you, we are 20 minutes walking from there. So he said cool can I drive you back then! 

Bathroom selfie at the church.

We got to know him and he said that he has never been able to actually find a BOM but had always wanted one. We gave him a BOM and then started driving away when both of us got a very distinct prompting that we should've gotten his info. So we turned around and he was still in his car and actually reading the Introduction! We got his info and then went on our way. It was awesome and such a huge blessing and I'm grateful we were where we were supposed to be and that I had that prompting :) and how God provides. Blessings.

Also I've recovered from the somewhat traumatic experience with that crazy lady. I'm good and happy now :)

I love the Gospel and the church so very much and I know it to be true! 

Send me pictures of your summer!

Love y'all 

Thanks for reading my novel.

Week 33: My poor brain is fried.

Working on the Chaco tan lines.

Monday- I am grateful for peace, pictures, and cooking.

Tuesday- I am very grateful for giving blessings and chacos :)

Wednesday- I am grateful for scripture study, the Word of Wisdom, super good weather, precious moments at home, and Missouri sunsets.

Thursday- I am grateful for nature, Mexican food, roads, serving, and pictures.

Friday- I am grateful for a supportive family, beautiful drives, and my get it done personality.

Saturday- I am grateful for turtles, the piano, and the Doctrine of Covenants.

Sunday- I am grateful for walking, sweating, and being open.

Monday- I am grateful for members, yard work, and talking to people.

The amount of time spent looking at a screen is making me insane.

Zone conference was good but included 6 HOURS OF STARING AT A SCREEN. We had more zoom calls through out the week, so ZC was just the start of it. Our average zc/d (zoom call per day) is sitting at like at least 2 hours. I hate my phone.

But, besides the zoom calls, ALL of our work is on our phone. Planning, calling, social media, zone chats, lessons, everything. I guess I should just be grateful that we have such great technology.

On a happier note I can sight read most hymns from the simplified hymn book and that is awesome.

We helped give out more free milk on Tuesday and Thursday and that's just a blast. As well as doing some yard work on Monday. We also are signed up to work with an organization that asks for volunteers to help with construction!! Needless to say I am very excited and can't wait to get back to building something. Yes Dad, thanks for all the basement building that you've been requiring me to do over the past couple of years.

Yummy cookies, made by the sisters.

I had a cool realization while reading the Book of Mormon this last week. Nephi went out to preach, not the boat Nephi the other one later on in the book, but before he even had people to teach he started performing miracles and serving others and then I realized that that was what Jesus did too. Before He gave the sermon on the mount and had tons of followers He simply went out serving. And so I've decided to try to be more like Jesus and do my best to become a service focused missionary and then a teaching missionary. Service will provide opportunities to teach and people who are willing to listen :) plus service is my favorite thing to do anyways.

I saw 2 turtles on Saturday, first in the morning during my run. I almost stepped on him it scared me! The second one was at the very end of my day when we were walking home from the church and he was chilling in the grass. I like all the wildlife that's just around all the time, it's cool. I also see deer and squirrels pretty regularly, like atleast a couple times a day. For some reason we saw a small fox on Sunday. It just walked past the church building, it was so random. I saw a crab!! Also on one of my runs in the morning, when I ran past he stopped walking and was like gearing up to poke me or something. It was definitely unexpected to see a crab on the sidewalk.

We aren't teaching many people but still trying to find them. We've had many people actually answer the phone and set up a time to meet with us, but none of them have actually answered the phone at the time we set up with them. It's pretty disappointing but that's the job and we are doing it :)

Our tree is up, how about you?

We finished our daily walk on Sunday and were about to get in the car when this kid pulls up on his bike and says, "do you think my bike would fit it your trunk". My comp explains how we can't drive him somewhere and the kid goes off topic and just starts talking and stuff and then I bring it back and he says that he's going to try to go up the hill with bike and I said ok we will watch you and make sure your safe. He said ok and started off up the hill and maybe like a 1/3 of the way up he stops and walks his bike for a few feet and then sits on the side of the road and just glances at us. We walk up to him and I said I'll push your bike up the hill, let's go. And so we walked with this kid for awhile until he says that he can ride from there. It was pretty funny, he was 8 years old and just talking to some strangers. He asked where we worked and we said that we taught people about Christ and his church. He said he loves church but he didn't say much else after that. I honestly loved that little moment and was one of the most exciting parts of the whole week for me.

A member was very generous and gave us a gift card to Texas Roadhouse so that made us very very happy. 

I lowkey jacked up my facebook and just let anyone and everyone be my friend. All of a sudden Facebook realized that I let everyone be my friend and so I literally got over 100 friend requests in one night!! Then I realized that I didn't want to be friends with people from the other side of the world who just wanted to stalk me. And so now I am in the process of only letting people from America be my friend and blocking the rest of the foreigners who keep on sending me weird messages. If there is a Facebook RESET button, let me know :)

Sweet car!

We got to actually talk with some people outside the other day and it was pretty sweet. Most people are pretty friendly and also want to know what the heck us kids in nice clothes are doing. So that's been pretty great and I've appreciated being able to actually talk with someone other than my companion.

If you've read this whole email I'm proud of you. Send help in the form of an entertaining email or picture

A sunset to say good bye.

Week 32: Misery

How much milk can you drink?

Tuesday- I am grateful for mission call openings and COUNTRY music.

Wednesday- I am grateful for service and talking to people.

Thursday- I am grateful for playing the ukulele and being busy and happy.

Friday- I am grateful for milk.

Saturday- I am grateful for packages.

Sunday- I am grateful for fasting, a living prophet, and being swept away in thought.

Service is the best

Missouri isn't too different from Lehi, there's a lot of girls driving Jeeps.

This week was good good good. I learned some good things. We got to help give out free milk for 3 hours on Tuesday and doing service made me so happy. We are doing it 2 times this week!!

We have had slow progress with our online and over the phone finding and teaching but we are recognizing our miracles and are happy with our efforts :)

AMANDA got baptized, she was completely taught by the companionship before me but I'm still grateful that I got to be a part of her baptism. I recognized a couple things from that baptism and for probably the first time in my life. I thought real hard about the months leading up to my baptism. I got to bear my testimony at the small baptismal service and it was so sweet. I ended up bearing my testimony on the small and simple things and it was all from the Spirit :)

Missouri is beautiful.

Running here lowkey sucks. It's more like I'm drinking the air than breathing it in. One time it was super foggy and then the fog just like snapped and everything on me was covered in water droplets and I was wet.

I don't mind using Facebook and how I can reach so many people and stay in touch with things back home. It's comforting. I actually really like doing our Live studies every night because it's fun to relate scriptural stuff to every day things. 

This chair is just my size.

We had some excellent trainings, one on meekness and integrity and I loved how meekness was defined-having the spiritual receptivity to learn from all people, especially the ones who you do not think you could learn something from.

Keep up with sunset love.

Then on Sunday night we had a Devotional with a General Authority who is over all the missions in the central US and it was super motivating. "Seek the Lord, Serve your neighbor, Support yourself" and how labels limit us. He was in a meeting with President Nelson and he taught how labels limit us. A student, B student, teacher, doctor, etc. But, the only thing that never limits us is that we are a son or daughter of God.

I also felt the Spirit bear witness to me during the Devo that The Savior is directing His church through President Nelson.

#thechurchistrue 

Message me I WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU!

I am learning to play the piano slowly and am playing my ukulele nearly everyday:) 

Also here's a good story for ya. If you've gotten this far. So I was cleaning out the piercings that I have to help reduce my chances of getting a migraine. And the top ball on my right one popped off! I couldn't get it back on because the part that I need to screw it into was inside my ear and behind some cartilage. So we went tattoo parlor hunting to try to get that ball back on. We tried 2 places and one wouldn't do it cuz they weren't licensed and the other place didn't know how to get to the spot. So we went to a 3rd tattoo parlor and this dude sat me down and pulled out the earring from the bottom and then was going to put the top on and take the bottom ball off and then push it back in through the top. Well anyways this guy ended up pulling and pushing on my ear for 30 minutes trying to get the earring back in. I was sweating like nothing else and told him that I was this close to throwing up and so he got me a trash can. I asked what else he could do and he said that he could put another earring in it that is a ring, its much easier to deal with and easier to clean and super quick. I gave up, my ear was killing me and I was gonna throw up so I told him to just put the ring in there. So he did and it was super quick and nearly painless. When I sat up the paper backing that he laid down on the chair was completely soaked, the whole thing. So now I have a super obvious earring but I don't even notice them anymore. It does strike up some good conversations and I would rather explain to people why I have weird earrings than just let them sit there and judge me. Anyways that was my adventure. I have gone one full week without any migraines so that's a huge blessing and I am very grateful.

Original piercing still in right ear.

New piercing now in left ear.

Week 31: FREE MILK

St. Louis Temple

Brand new car

Wednesday- I am grateful for Mexican food.

Thursday- I am grateful for technology.

Friday- I am grateful for driving around.

Saturday- I am grateful for the weekend and listening to promises.

Sunday- I am grateful for chill conversations and Brazil.

Monday- I am grateful for sunsets and being reminded of my purpose/testimony.

Fun wild life

 Wowwwww what a difference in missions. This is insaneeeeee. I went from not even a bike to a 2019 fancy car and from a literal brick as a phone and 3 hours of technology each week to being on my genius phone for the majority of my week.

Jefferson City and Elder Hobert

I am grateful to be here and feel that I have so much to learn. My comp is Elder Hobert from Syracuse and he's got 20 months out on the mish so he's nearly done, he's a good guy. 

Cool train tracks, BOM and me

We spend most of our day calling people and trying to teach or scheduling to teach and all that stuff, it's interesting. I've gotten discouraged multiple times and wondered why send me back out if I can't walk in the hot sun all day talking to people. I've listened to some very good talks that have helped change my perspective and I'm happier :)

I'm pretty happy

Saint Louis Missouri mission is definitely going to take some getting used to but there's nothing wrong with that.

We were able to teach ONE lesson since I've been here and it hit me right back into focus mentally and spiritually. We taught the Restoration and I felt the Spirit very strongly and remembered why I am sitting in Missouri.

Gorgeous sunsets

I love being able to drive every day.

I can read messages literally anytime pretty much so if you ever have an idea or wanna tell me joke or are very bored and want to rant to me or tell me every little thing about your day I would be very happy to hear it.

So we work a lot on Facebook, like nearly the whole day, but anyways we are the Facebook page for our ward and someone in our ward who owns a pasture or something is giving away free milk for a whole day and I'm hyped for tomorrow now.

Picture from the Bishop

Friend me on Facebook and like my stuff, I try to put something on my story every day, It's probably real annoying for y'all but I try to be creative.

Love, 

Elder Morrison