Week 44: Some Weirdos

 

Found Elder Kimball from my home town!

Tuesday- I am grateful for fun, notes, trust, and good food!!

Wednesday- I am grateful for my ukulele, feelings, and repentance.

Thursday- I am grateful for thoughts, conversations, agreements, spontaneous storms, my FAMILY, and honesty.

Friday- I am grateful for a vision, safety, writing, games, and responsibilities.

Saturday- I am grateful for The Spirit, revelation, The Restoration, serving, and realization.

Sunday- I am grateful for purpose, fasting, handstands, and personal peace.

Me, Elder Brown, Elder Cannon

My new area is called Riverview South! Which is super ironic because my last area was called Riverview but anyways my area is kinda big but super skinny and runs right along the Missouri river with Illinois on the other side! I am in a trio with Elder Brown, reassigned from Peru and Elder Cannon reassigned from South Africa. So it's a whole house full of reassigned missionaries which is pretty cool. Our apartment is not very big and our beds are maybe a foot and a half apart if we are lucky. 

I played my ukulele quite a bit during the week and had a good time. One of the elders has a guitar so I might try that again. 

Once again I am a Facebook admin except this time it's a lot different. There's a lot more to actually do. There are 29 missionaries on this page and it needs a lot of help, so I'm doing my best to get the Facebook page to where it needs to be!

Our Saturday was jam packed full of service. We had 4 service projects and sadly weren't able to make it to the last one:( but still such a good day! I actually felt the Spirit multiple times during Saturday and I am very grateful for it.

I feel that I am where I'm supposed to be.

We get to have church every Sunday!!  It's awesome and sometimes really short but that's ok. The power of the sacrament is still there.

 

Prayer is important.

 

We had steak 2 times from members and both times it was this steak called pork steaks which is a ST Louis thing. It's nothing amazing but steak is always good   Both families were actually kinda crazy and one was super crazy cuz they had 3 cats and 5 rats as pets. It made me want to throw up.

God Bless America!

Doing good out here in good ole Misery

Love,

Elder Morrison

Week 43: Don't Sweat it

 

Monday- I am grateful for relief, basketball, editing, and funny moments.

Tuesday- I am grateful for sewing, 9pm, and comfortable chairs.

Wednesday- I am grateful for my abilities, The 12 Apostles, and inside jokes.

Thursday- I am grateful for scout camps, happy memories, the weather, knowledge, cleaning, The Bible, and action.

Friday- I am grateful for $change$, studying, baking, and the moon.

Saturday- I am grateful for driving, the piano, planning, lives, and calmness.

Sunday- I am grateful for drives, history, selfies, and studying.

Monday- I am grateful for excitement, completion, hard workers, my District, love, trying new things, and confidence.

Elder Torask and I

We get back to our apartment building Monday night and everyone is outside and our door is open. We get out of the car and the maintenance dude asks very angrily if we forgot to do something. He then told us that we nearly burned down the whole apartment building. Well it turns out Elder Torsak left the burner on after he boiled water but cleaned the pot and Elder Smith had taken his nuggets out of the oven and unknowingly put them on a hot burner and we left  right after he took them out. So the nuggets got superrrr burned and made the whole buildings smoke alarms go off. I thought it was kinda funny. Also I don't think that nuggets will make the whole apartment burn down, they don't really catch fire.

My only pair of regular shorts got snagged last time during service and got a hole in them. So I took the matter into my own hands and sewed it! I'm pretty proud of it to be honest. It's not perfect but it's honest work and does the job.

We got to do quite a bit of service this week which was excellent and my favorite thing still.

 

I learned quite a bit about myself which is always interesting. It's not like you even try to learn things about yourself. It's just like, OH I'm like this or I'm like that or I really don't like that or I really like this. Yep that's how I would describe it. I learned that I am not a great texter and don't do well with contacting when I can't see the person. I really like action and being there and am very annoyed with always being behind a screen but that's ok 

This week has FLOWN by and honestly the week before that did too. TIME IS FLYING.

Paid for a drink at the gas station with 95 pennies, and a dime. It was excellent.

Study time is the best time and I find myself later in the day just wanting to study more, it's actually super cool to have slowed down and fully come to appreciate all the books of scripture.

 

I played, "In Christ Alone" on the ukulele and sang with 2 sisters in my district! It took a ton of time and work and I'm so happy with how it turned out.

My Sunday was excellent because I got to study so much!! I am so grateful for studying and the Spirit that it brings. I learned a lot from the Book of Mormon and also from the book of Acts in the Bible. Reading how the old apostles worked miracles is so cool!

I'm also reading Saints 2 and have loved how it explains everything so clearly. It's a big testimony builder :)

Elder Torsak, Elder Tippets, Elder Smith and I

I  made cookies this week and they were HUGE, it's crazy and they aren't too bad but I'll have to do better next time because these ones are just a little bit too hard. EVERYTHING is a learning process, don't stress about it so hard 

I'm getting transferred! Something crazy is that the only time I have packed my bags on the mission, was to go home... but we will see where I'm going to next! 

I'm sorry for all you poor souls out there starting school. 

LOVE Y'ALL

Elder Morrison

Week 42: Aha Moment

 

Building a huge deck!

Monday- I am grateful for BBQ's, church movies, lighting, and laughing.

Tuesday- I am grateful for filming, tacos, cookies, and communication.

Wednesday- I am grateful for being happy, tired, and feeling proud of the Facebook video I made.

Thursday- I am grateful for PEACE, nature, construction, leadership, and social media...sometimes.

Friday- I am grateful for support, honesty, unity, and PUSHUPS.

Saturday- I am grateful for driving, traffic, baptisms, laughing, young families, children, Priesthood, and The Holy Ghost.

Sunday- I am grateful for ideas, excitement, creativity, and honesty.

Happy to say that I had an excellent moment where I was just sitting and then bam all of sudden I had the realization that I didn't want to be anywhere else. I knew why I was here, and I wanted to be here and my heart wasn't anywhere else and I wasn't thinking about anywhere else. Pretty rad if ya ask me.

Not sure why I decided to do this but one day I was like hey I'm gonna make a goal to do 10 pushups every hour starting at 10am and going until 9pm. One other elder in the house decided to do it with me as well. It's honestly been super fun and makes the day feel more split up. 

We helped a single middle-aged lady move into her new home and she has no association with the church but responded to a service ad! I am so grateful that we went and helped because it was just her and a 26 foot UHAUL! It was awesome to help out and we got it done in a good amount of time.

We had a super cool miracle where a man named Steve who lived in the sisters area of Elder Torsaks last zone wanted him to baptize him! Some how we got to go do that Saturday and his baptism was the sweetest thing ever! I even got to have a part in the confirmation!! I felt the Spirit multiple times throughout the baptism and it brought me so much joy. 

The Lord will answer your prayers and He loves you beyond imagination. That is all the knowledge you need to know to keep moving forward :)

Love yall.

Elder Morrison

Week 41: The Moving Team

 

Monday- I am grateful for being by myself, thoughts, RUNNING, Walmart, and my Family.

Tuesday- I am grateful for the Priesthood, blessings, the temperature, and inner peace.

Wednesday- I am grateful for the Book of Mormon, joy, quiet, and food.

Thursday- I am grateful for interviews, love, trust, and loyalty.

Friday- I am grateful for service, cookies from home, carrots, sweating, filming, and goals.

Saturday- I am grateful for moving, free food, and my body.

Sunday- I am grateful for happiness, fasting, music, positivity, and The Sacrament.

My favorite service activity this week was on Tuesday where we helped out a guy named Randy. It was later in the day and the weather was perfect and I was able to just haul wheelbarrow after wheelbarrow of weeds. I was so happy. 

My rashes weren't bothering me and the place had a summer camp sort of feel to it, that hit me with nostalgia. The sky was beautiful and there was the smell of freshly cut grass. Everyone was all smiles. I felt very peaceful. 

There was my attempt and being a poet and really painting the picture. I know it's pitiful but at least I tried 😂

I got a blessing because the poison ivy wasn't really getting any better and kept me up for the whole night. I felt a lot of peace afterwards :) 

I finished the Book of Mormon again!! Man that book is special. Y'all should read it! I started at the beginning next day and it was awesome, it felt good and I just felt so happy.

We had interviews on Thursday and I didn't realize how much I needed it but it was amazing!! Pres Bell is great and I felt a lot of love from him from my Savior, through him. 

Also had a couple great Bible studies this week. I love them because it makes me think about how the chapters apply to my day, right now and how I can always learn more every day! Idk if anyone else appreciates them as much as I do 😂

Elder Tippets, Elder Smith and Elder Torsak

We helped out some more with the deck and it's coming along so nicely!! I'll try to get pictures sometime. 

I love my alone time.

We helped 2 different families move on Saturday! It basically took up our whole day but it was awesome! The first family was an investigator family, the house was absolutely trashed and they had more to do than just moving that day. NOTHING was in a box and the whole house was a mess all together. It sort of snapped me into reality at how blessed I've always been to have my life in order. The 2nd house was a member family and they were very ready to move. Just about everything in a box and most furniture was wrapped and ready to go. I am very grateful for the ability of my body and how I was able to help them out 🙏

Excellent fast Sunday. I had a super good time in Sacrament meeting and felt the spirit strongly :)

Big grins from serving for house this week!

Week 40: Uhm yeah....

Monday- I am grateful for being content, happy calls, and clouds.

Tuesday- I am grateful for being busy, connections, helping, and plans.

Wednesday- I am grateful for rain, more connections, friends, and views.

Thursday- I am grateful for outdoors, sandwiches, clouds, and simplicity.

Friday- I am grateful for revelation, free food, accomplishment, progress, and learning.

Saturday- I am grateful for water, technology, weekly planning, hats, and peace.

Sunday- I am grateful for peace, relief, pretty clouds, and music.

We had some great service this week. We met a kid named Holden who is 15 and 6'4"!! He's a tall kid but anyways we got to teach him a little about the Restoration and extend the invitation to learn more and he said yeah, he'd be interested in it! It was sweet. 

We did some service where we shoveled pebbles to make a sort of sand box, it was real redneck but anyways, it started raining buckets and we just kept on going. We were completelyyyyyy drenched but I was happy. It reminded me of Brazil.

We helped a family move and only one of them was a member and she's a recent convert and so we got a whole crowd of members from the ward to help them move! Over 20 people came to help them move and it was so awesome.

 

Elder Backus, Collin's MTC Companion.

Some crazy connections happened this week. First was with my new comp, he's 21, reassigned from the Philippines, from Pleasant Grove and his twin sister was serving in Omaha Nebraska with my brother. CRAZY!

2nd one was when we got invited to a YSA activity and there was an RM there and I knew I recognized him from somewhere and he thought I was familiar to him. We finally put it together when he asked where I'm from and then asked if Collin was my brother. The guy was companions with my brother in the MTC! CRAZY!

Me, Elder Smith, Elder Tippets, and Elder Torsak

The YSA activity was at this crazy rich guys property who has a lake and boats and kayaks and like 3 houses and a super cool basement. It was crazy. He had a whole room full of animals that he had hunted in Africa. Crazy big animals like, alligators, lions, yaks, bison, rhino, wild boars, zebras, and even an elephant!! 

We also got lots of free food at service activities so that was a blessing, it's been great. 

Played the piano for at least an hour and a half one day just trying to perfect one son. It was frustrating but also calming, that's the way hymns are I guess.

 

Scabies or poison ivy, time will tell!

Well another Elder that I live with and I got some crazy weird bites over the past couple of days and yesterday it took a turn for the worst for Elder Smith and he got absolutely covered in them. I wasn't too bad but it wasn't comfortable. We texted the mission nurse and turns out that we have scabies and basically they are little insects that just cause misery. Poor Elder Smith was oozing out of the bite things all day and it hurts so bad for him that he can barely move.

It's really just on my wrist for me and it's gross. It reminds me of when I had worms and I can feel them tingling sometimes. We are getting a prescription today and are supposed to clean EVERYTHING. It'll be interesting. I won't go into more detail on those thingies.

Missouri is a cursed place.

Super pretty clouds on Sunday brought me a lot of peace.

 

Anyways prayers are always needed and appreciated :) 

Love y'all and Jesus.

This isn't a negative email I love my life