Week 57: Mountains to Climb

Working hard

 

Monday- I am grateful for cars, jokes, My Family, email, and voice recordings

Tuesday- I am grateful for choices, opportunity, laughter, and lightheartedness.

Wednesday- I am grateful for interviews, posts, messages, thoughts, and guidance of The Holy Ghost.

Thursday- I am grateful for constants, Thanksgiving, sunsets, and calling my Family.

Friday- I am grateful for comps, sleep, new days, and happiness from gratitude.

Saturday- I am grateful for Walmart, smoothies, "The making of The Christ Child"

Sunday- I am grateful for sleep, reading, the sunrise, The Spirit, and good jams.

Doesn't everyone wear boots with running shorts?

We have been teaching soooo much about Prayer, and I love prayer! Talking about it so much helped me to remember to improve my prayers. Sometimes I don't focus during my prayers and my thoughts wander. But I have been doing my best to focus entirely on praying when I do pray.

Our teaching pool went to trash this week and just about all lessons fell through and yeah it was weird. We taught our homie Jack like we do every night and he's on date for baptism but he wanted to get baptized this weekend all of a sudden so we set up an interview and then failed it. But hey he is gonna get baptized eventually. 

Driving a truck.

I found some straight jams today and it was super sickk. I love some good jams. Also it's real Christmas music time so get hyped for that.

Oh right, there was Thanksgiving. We had a good time and a TON of food and I got to call my family so that was rad as always. 

How many missionaries can fit in said truck?

Also, I completely recognized how much happier I was because of doing President Nelson's give thankschallenge. It was so great and I'm grateful for His revelation.

I love sleep.

Welp message me so that I can feel not so bored. 

Soo much food!

Hope y'all had a good Thanksgiving.

Love,

Elder Morrison

Week 56: Abraham's Birthplace

 

Tuesday- I am grateful for half marathons, relating, and My Family.

Wednesday- I am grateful for freedom, familiarity, and phones.

Thursday- I am grateful for cute ponds, lesson prep, and Walmart.

Friday- I am grateful for gratitude, rain, contacts, and technology.

Saturday- I am grateful for examples, my piercings, mud, running, good weather, and music!

Sunday- I am grateful for all the elders in the house, windows, boots, and chalk.

Welp, I got transferred to Springfield, Illinois. which is Abraham Lincoln's hometown and really the only cool thing about this place.

I live in the 'mission mansion' with another companionship who are the Zone Leaders, one of them being Elder Brown!! It's weird living with him again but also so so great! My comp has been out 4 months, Elder Toomey, and is super sweet! We get along well. 

Welp we got put into lockdown again. This is like my 3rd lockdown with Elder Brown hahahah but anyways it's kinda hit us all hard.

Illinois is stupid flat btw,  send pics of the mountains!

A lot of our lessons have fallen through lately and we actually have 3 people on date right now! So that's sick. All the people are pretty old tho so they REALLY like to talk. 

We spend a lot of time contacting people as usual and I haven't seen any part of town except the church and uh Walmart, so we don't get out much which is pretty sad.

Nevertheless, the work goes on and so do we. It's good out here.

I have loved President Nelson's challenge because I love being grateful.

Living with 3 other elders has been a party and I'm really grateful for them!

I came to the realization this week that the mission has officially made me weird. Send help. I can't remember what normal life is like. I only know what being a missionary is like. Help.

Tell me about your Thanksgiving plans!

Love y'all 

Keep being grateful 

Elder Morrison

Week 55: PROGRESS

Hay bales

Monday- I am so grateful for My Family, personal study, running, fields, and perfect temperatures.

Tuesday- I am grateful for hay bales, cold rain, my body, and music.

Wednesday- I am grateful for stargazing, The temple, flowers, music, and open space.

Thursday- I am grateful for clouds, interviews, John 3:16, emails, cooking, pass along cards, and long sleeves. 

Friday- I am grateful for Portuguese, talks, videos, sunshine, and ingenuity.

Saturday- I am grateful for running, rain, Walmart, and texts.

Sunday- I am grateful for invitations, progress, farewells, thoughts, and realizations.

Monday- I am grateful for excitement, change, spontaneous service, bonfires, and new music policy.

Wooowee last week of the transfer!

We got to do some service at the temple and it was pretty anticlimactic. Every time we get asked to do temple grounds service I always get so excited and think that it's going to be something big and make a huge difference but every time it's actually been pretty small and seemingly insignificant. For example, all we did was cut off the heads of dead flowers. It really doesn't seem like it's gonna' make that much of a difference in the end but that's how things stay nice. Constant and precise care. 

But it's always way worth it because it's a huge blessing just to be on the grounds of the Temple, The Lord's house is powerful. 

We helped a nice lady move in our stake and she was super nice and invited us to a bonfire on Saturday! 

We had interviews with President on Thursday and it was excellent! I love interviews. They are always spiritually rewarding.

 

Tacos for the win.

We tried to get a little creative this week and so we got some pass along cards and addressed them to specific people in our Areabook and dropped them by their houses! It was fun and got us out of the house more so that's always a blessing. 

Starting to get chilly

The Chosen is the best show ever.

We helped out Kevin this week by helping him install piping, cleaning out his gutters, and helping him feed his horses. We tried to teach a lesson but he's REAL hard to keep on topic. Good stuff for sure though.

Speedy!

Saturday seemed like kind of a bust but we seemed to make the best of it! Our service and bonfire both got cancelled because of the rain. So instead we went on some walks around Walmart, listened to some great devotionals, and went on an evening run to help revive ourselves. Somehow I ran a mile time trial and got 5:01! I was amazed and almost ran a PR in my old age Oh so happy it made the whole day so much better. Exercise does wonders my friends.

Bonfire

I finished the Doctrine and Covenants this week!! It's definitely strengthened my testimony in the Restoration! All things in the book were revelations from God and they all can bring you closer to Him. Talking more of Him does that ya know.

We taught Aliyah on Sunday about The Gospel of Jesus Christ and put her on date for December 5th!!! The Spirit was so powerful during the invitation it was glorious. It made me want to shout for joy. We are so happy and excited for her! 

It made the rest of the week all worth it 

Gina really spoiled us.

We FINALLY had Ward coordination meeting and got them to steadily be held every week! Huge accomplishment.

The Facebook page is TAKING OFF. It sure has come a long way in the time since I've gotten here! I'm so grateful for progress.

Things have really seemed to come together this week 

The music policy has changed and it now includes a Christian pop station on the radio. I'm ecstatic and soooo happy.

Well I'm getting transferred and can firmly say that I'm leaving the area better than I found it so I'm quite happy.

Love y'all

Elder Morrison

Week 54: The Big 1/2 Way Mark

Tuesday- I am grateful for basketball, beautiful weather, America, revelations, and The 2nd Coming!

Wednesday- I am grateful for quiet, talking, progress, change, and thinking.

Thursday- I am grateful for Chacos, the smell of fires, and The Gospel of Matthew.

Friday- I am grateful for sunsets, drugs, cheesy shows, and cake!

Saturday- I am grateful for intelligence, hard work, personal study, the temperature, softball, boots, and overalls.

Sunday- I am grateful for rivers, lessons, treats, trees, and The Spirit.

Pizza for service.

Well, well, well, I have officially put off the mission body for one full yearand here's to another one

We had exchanges and so the district leader took both my comps off my hands and gave me the missionary he was training. It was great! The apartment was much quieter and we talked to a lot of just weird people in the park. It was interesting for sure.

The election has taken EVERYONES attention. People all over just talk about it with us and it's not even like a comfortable conversation switch. They are just bam the election, have you heard this or have you heard that.

No matter what I'm excited for the 2nd Coming to happen.

Somethings that always seemed to calm me down was actually my nightly live Bible studies! 

We finished Revelations and so we started at the start of The New Testament with Matthew. The story of Christs birth and just reading the scriptures has so much power and effect on me. I noticed right after how I felt while I was reading! I felt happier, calmer, and lighter/ brighter? The Gospel is a light in a dark world! That's for sure.

Burn that nasty shirt!

We taught some lessons to members from Come follow Me and it was great! I love how Mormon 8:12-22 makes you think about the worth of The Book of Mormon. The Book of Mormon has definitely grown in worth to me because I have put the work into it! You have to put the work in for yourself to really have it mean something powerfully personal.

We also successfully contacted the ward mission team and set up ward coordination, so hopefully those actually get going.

We had mission conference which was fine. I'm really not a fan of 2 separate zone conferences every single transfer. Especially when one is over zoom. Nevertheless,  it happened and I still had some great spiritual takeaways.

I had a lil migraine on Friday after that 5 hour zoom and sorta just slept and layed it off .

Lots of service on Saturday which was so good. We had 2 lunches and dinner provided! Free food is some real great stuff.

Finally got to teach a lesson to an investigator, I think it's the 2nd time this whole transfer.

Boy oh boy I love The Holy Ghost! It was so good to teach a lesson and to be led by The Spirit the whole time. Those short moments make all the rest not seem so bad 

Love y'all and would love even more to hear from you!

Elder Morrison

Week 53: A Glorious Morning

 

8 mile walk

Monday- I am grateful for rain, studying, and emails.

Tuesday- I am grateful for exercising, preparedness, and my patriarchal blessing.

Wednesday- I am grateful for long walks, cake, and free tacos.

Thursday- I am grateful for recognition, solutions, hauling logs, Jesus Christ, happiness, and hot showers.

Friday- I am grateful for rivers, smiling, and my ukulele.

Saturday- I am grateful for memories, games, country music, The Plan of Salvation, and answered prayers.

Sunday- I am grateful for one extra hour of sleep, The Ensign, being happy, and the STARS!

Monday- I am grateful for gifts, leaves, service, memories and advice.

I make great cake.

Somebody stole a base in a baseball game so we got free tacos from Taco Bell on Wednesday. It was a good day. Also went on a 8 mile walk that day. 

Farmer for Halloween

Helped out with the logging service and hauled logs for a solid 2.5 hours on Thursday. Man it's a work out, and hard work, and really dirty, but I find myself just smiling and feeling so happy the entire time, every time!! I'm so grateful for my happy attitude in all times  I've been blessed.

This sunset!

 

We taught a couple of Members this week over zoom and it was excellent! The only ones who really will make time for us are the lonely old people and it makes me feel so bad for them. I hope we spend the time now with the older ones who might not have much going on. They are so grateful when we do. 

Filmed "If You could Hie to Kolob" with my comps  I really am not good at singing, but I'll do it.

 

Visited the Mississippi and it had risen quite a bit because of the 4 solid days of rain! 

We love Sis. Lindsey

Speaking of, I finally saw the sun on Friday and oh boy was that a glorious day. I love the sun. 

I finished the Book of Mormon in Portuguese!! In less than a year too! Super happy and excited and it has only grown my love for The Book of Mormon and its power. It has greatly helped my Portuguese and continues to do so 

Glorious sunset

We had a great Halloween full of chopping logs, studying, playing some games, and visiting Sister Lindsey. She had us sit outside with her and hand out candy. She's the best. Her neighbors were playing some loud country music and boy oh boy did that throw me back. Also got to call my family which is always a blessing. It was a good Halloween 

Free Tacos

It's crazy how rarely I see the stars now. Kinda makes me sad when I think about it. I LOVE the stars and want to be able see them all the time.

How fast are you driving?

 

We got 5 referrals in one day this week.

All of our lessons with investigators fell through.

We only got to teach one lesson this week and it was to a member.

But ya' know what, the work is still happening.

My run yesterday morning was 28° degrees! When I got back in the car at the end of it my eyelashes had ice on them. Pretty rad.

Love,

Elder Morrison