Busy week

Oh hey.

So this week has been good, but nothing tooooo exciting.

Teaching is hard. I guess I have figured out how I am not as good as a teacher I thought I was or told I was.  It is hard to talk to people like they know NOTHING.  We have to simplify EVERYTHING. They don't know what the priesthood is, or what apostasy is or all that mumbo jumbo. So.... that is hard. 

We tried to tract a lot this week because our zone leaders yelled at us because we had low numbers.  but like I told you last week, the members in our ward have been hounding us to get all those less actives checked out and invited to meet with us (which is THEIR JOB, might I add) anywho, so perhaps we were not focused on OUR purpose, so yeah we got yelled at.  But we redeemed ourselves. We tracted on Tuesday. It was SO hot, and the lord totally knew we were miserable. the wind was blowing and so it helped keep us cool. it would stop and then we would feel like we were going to die and then the wind would blow. GUH SO NICE. TENDER MERCIES!!

Also, dumb story but I was way happy. We were invited to a BBQ at a member’s house, it was for the ward, but he told us there would be some LONG time investigators there, so he wanted us to come. One of those investigators being his wife, she is catholic.  We already had someone signed up to feed us that night but it was a long BBQ so we made it in time.  We met the investigators, they could care less to talk to us, but we shared a message, and we talked to some of the members. Well, Alice, his wife has NINE CATS. Umm hello?  Where are they? Let me pet!!??  So she was like “oh yes come in”, and she is showing us all her cats and I was like AHHHH!!! I miss my cats!! And she had one that she rescued, he was a little kitty, orange tiger stripe, and she let us hold him, he didn't want to be held but I HELD him. So cute. I was soooo happy. Best part is, she told us we could come back. So we were like uhh. Holla!  Yet another tender mercy because I was reaaally missing my cat. hahaha

On Tuesday, the same day we tracted, I noticed a woman sitting in her front yard, we still had a couple of houses before her, so we didn't immediately go talk to her.  But no one answered the doors before her so we were walking down the street and we were still a ways a way and she was like HI!! And so we started talking to her and she was like so what are you girls doing? And we told her who we were and what we were up to and she started asking all these questions.  Long story short, she invited us back, but she also invited the Jehovah witness back...grr. But hey, we believe in happiness and they don't so I think it will be fine.  :-) New investigator! Whoot!

There is an elderly woman in our ward. Sweeeetest lady. Sister Lacaden. we went over to her home to pick something up from her and she just out of the blue was like you girls are so beautiful and it comes from the inside, you are where you need to be, and you are with each other for a reason, the strength you give each other will help you in the rest of your mission and with the Christ like attributes, you both have, when you come together, you will be unstoppable. She cried all the way through it, so of course sister LeBaron and I were in tears. Man. the spirit that came into that room was incredible. I was like I needed that. She needed to tell us that. We cried for like the next hour hahaha. But I wrote that down and Sister LeBaron always says "let's go be unstoppable!"  

If I ever have to be a trainer, I have made a list. A LIST of things that I like and dislike that sister Lebaron does hahaha I think of how I want to do it. I don't know why I think about it so that's not a good sign. hahahaah

Oh and yesterday we tracted, and the LAST door. THE LAAAAST. DOOR. of course.  After having people reject us all day, and then one guy was just a perve and anyway. We get to this one house, and this one girl was just visiting, and she was walking out so we talked to her. She has had an eventful past, and she had a really bad ear infection that spread to her brain and nearly killed her. She had to have surgery and she has 2 kids and some permanent damage, she had to relearn how to walk and talk and all that. So we told her we offered free service and she was like well i might put you to work.  But the last thing she said was "look I was baptized and all that and I believe in god, and that there is someone looking over me, but I also know that is was not a coincidence that we met. I was only here for 2 minutes."  Unfortunately for us, she is not in our area, so we don't get to teach her. But she hasn't contacted us and she didn't give us her info. But it was still cool.

People look at you funny. they see your name tag and they go inside, or they look the other way. Sometimes when you knock on a door and they answer they are like oh hi girls!! What can I do for you!  And then they see your name tag and they are like...oh. what do YOU want?  It’s funny how that works

Anyway. That is it for now I guess.  Adios.

Because I like this...

Aloha

Hello,

So tomorrow we get a toaster in our apartment..A TOASTER!!! I have never been so excited. Do you know what this means? Toaster Struddle for breakfast. Hallaa!!!!!

That is one thing I have noticed on my mission. The little things. Be grateful for the little things...like toasters. And fans to keep the mold out of your bathroom, and the time you get in the bathroom. It is nice to be away from your companion for 10min so you can take a shower hahahaha.

We had zone meeting (my first one!) this week. It was way good, man everything that was said I was like yep that was for me..that too...and that.. hahah so great! I love meetings, they are probably one of my favorite things.  Plus sometimes I get to go to Washington and that is always a plus.

Mom/Michele, I have forgotten so many times to tell you this, but I have gotten lots of compliments on my skirts :-)

At night, or during study or in the shower..it is pretty annoying. You can't focus because you are going through little role plays in your head..geez. You know you're a missionary when that is one of your main thoughts..how would I explain this to someone? How would I answer this question? I don't sleep at night!! hahahah

The ward here - Rocky Butte, we are trying to get them to be involved in missionary work. Well...we see some progress, but not much, it is slow.  So let me just tell you. i am now experiencing what it is like to be a missionary, and to DESPERATLY need the help of the members.  In Preach My Gospel (PMG) it tells us to be a blessing and not a burden to the bishop, well members, please be a blessing and not a burden to the missionaries! haha. This blessing not a burden rule goes for everyone.  Members don't want to come out with us, they don't want to talk to our investigators. We had a relief society picnic thing where one of our investigators - Stephanie, came. NO ONE talked to her. I was like WHAT THE FLIP?!?!?! umm hello? um hi? (Anna you will get that :-D )  There were like 2 members that were actively talking to her and then our relief society president was just like oh hey. I was so disappointed. We introduced her to people, and we told people AHEAD of time that she would be there. SO disappointed. Members, after the investigator is a member it is YOUR JOB to help them feel welcome and included so they STAY ACTIVE. Also, the missionaries ASSIST the bishop as he ASSISTS us as we ASSIST.  The members so on and so forth, we are all ASSISTING each other, not all dumping our jobs on the missionaries. no. it is not MY job as a FULL TIME missionary to go out with your entire ward list and find out where the ward is at. No. I go out and teach less actives, it is your job to find them, and to INVITE them, SO MUCH POWER AND SUCCESS happens when the members work with the missionaries!!!!!!! I have already talked to some people that said if the missionaries came knocking at their door, they would have said no, but because their nice member friend invited them to meet with the missionaries, it wasn't so weird or scary.. Don't know how to invite your friends to meet with the missionaries? ASK THE MISSIONARIES...THEY CAN HELP!!!!!!  Rant over. Wait not it's not.  EVERYONE is a missionary, EVERYONE is capable of doing missionary work, even if you served a mission, your mission is not over, there is always work to do, always a soul to help and save. Sometimes they need a friend not a full time missionary, sometimes they need YOU. And ONLY YOU. Sometimes you are the only person who can touch them.  I promise you, PROMISE, if you pray for opportunities to share the gospel, you will get them. Open your mouth, don't be afraid to speak (D&C 30:11) who cares what they think!! you will be blessed even if they don't accept the invitation. the lord won't be like "oh. They declined, no blessings for you." no! You put forth the effort to do his work OF COURSE you will be blessed!!! Open your mouth!! Just be an example, be a friend!  I promise you the lord needs you, every single one of you, you are all so important. one of our favorite quotes here in the mission is "GOD DOES NOT DO RANDOM" everything has a purpose, everything has reason.  You know the people you know for a reason. You were put in their life and them in yours for a reason.  Go forth and serve! Ok NOW rant over. :)

It is pretty cool seeing how the spirit works, there are times when I really just don't know what to say, and my companion looks at me and I'm like-crap. hahahah but I just start talking and something cool comes out! hahah So many times I have already seen that.  plus gosh the investigators we have now, still not progressing, and we are like okay, what the flip does this person need?!?!?!?  When we don't know, we make a plan anyway, we go in there and it is so cool how the spirit will use what you have and direct it to something grand.  We just listen to our investigators; they tell us what they need. Just listen.  Then the spirit is like AHHHHH!!! That!!! Talk about that!! we had that experience recently, we are teaching a woman named Mary Lisa, love her so much, we were going to talk about prayer and we ended up talking about how to recognize the spirit, I don't know how but it flowed so perfectly.  I mean yeah they are kinda related, but just the way it happened I was like there is no way we could have done that on our own. That was like PRO-FESH! hahah

Time on your mission does not make sense. the days feel like weeks the weeks feel like days...the weekends feel like eternity. However there is a scripture (i can't remember it off the top of my head) but it says that this is all basically one day to god and time is only measured by man.. According to Sister LeBaron, since we are on the lord's time here...hahhahaha

@Alicia, thanks for the necklace :) I have worn it every day and lots of people are like oooo I love your necklace and I say ohhh shanks..my seester gives it to me :-) (Okay I don't say it like that...)

Anyway, I can't really think of anything else. So that is is for now!!

Love ya lots!

Ok so the story with the two elders real fast while I still have wifi,
that was from zone meeting,  they talked about being yourself and how
important it is because god called YOU. so they said how they got
talking to someone that really like pd super Herod and that was their
connection, so at the end they were like just be you and so will we,
and they RIPPED their shirts open hahaha it was like wow. Okay but we
all couldn't help but laugh. The one with batman is elder Jackson our
district leader. The other one is elder Speer. Ok bye!!

Happy One Month

I TURNED ONE ON SATURDAY!!! yayayayay!!!!!!!! Happy birthday too meeee!! 1 month!

Okay so this week has been soo hard!!  I'm just really feeling homesick and feel like I'm having a hard time settling in still.  My comp. is finally driving me a bit nuts, but I love her still. I just can't stop thinking about certain things and certain people and it just seems so overwhelming and sometimes like I can't help it, but i just think of home.  I miss you all like crazy and you really have no idea (well some of you might) how much I love your mail and letters.

So it was kind of an eventful week.  On Sunday (not yesterday, last Sunday) we went to church and someone had come with her friend who was a convert, she was GOLDEN. GOLDEN!!!!! And guess what, I don't even get to teach her because she is not in my dang area.  BLAST. So I had fasted and prayed to find an investigator for someone else!! hahah it was still way cool though!!  

Then Tuesday and Wednesday we got a 'mini missionary' she is 17, she was only with us those 2 days, and she just observed, we tried to get her to give a Book of Mormon away but she was too scared. I was like well...you ain't gonna know what it feels like if you don't do it!! That is why you are here!! but she wouldn't.  I was like “girl, I gave 2 books away my first time, you got this, it is not scary!!”  hahah but she was like no no no!!  Those 2 days it sucked, I was really having a hard time keeping it together. My emotions have been everywhere and I didn't want to cry in front of  her hahah. I didn't but I just really had a hard time.  

Sister LeBaron keeps telling me how awesome I am and blah blah blah but I'm like no.  I'm not doing bad, but I just feel like I'm doing as good as I COULD be, I know this takes time but I'm just in the mode of having to do all these things and I can't and it is frustrating. Lessons with her are annoying lately. She dominates and I rarely get to speak.  I just try to jump in and talk and she talks over me.  So I’m like ummm ya butt, knock it off! TWO BY TWO sister TWO BY TWO..not you.  Alone.  Thanks. I have talked to her about it and nothing gets done. so...we'll see how that goes.  

Motivation has also been a struggle.  It is hard to do things when you weren't crazy about doing them from the start. Some days I'm like ok has it been 18 months yet?  Um I've only been out a month.  Pathetic.  Come on sister! Geez Louise!  

Plus on top of that, my spine KILLS, and I get some nasty headaches still.  And I've just been super sick to my stomach lately. yay. stressed much?

I think “Come, Come Ye Saints” and “Lead Kindly Light” are the best things ever, they are like our theme song.  hahahahah.

So on Wednesday, we FINALLLYYYYY found a new investigator after a whole week of praying our guts out and fasting and tracting and more tracting, the FIRST door we knock on, this girl answers, and we just started talking to her, and we taught her the restoration and about the Book of Mormon, she took a copy and by the time we left, she just seemed to light up.  Just the look on her face and her eyes, I was like “oh man this is it!!” hahaha it was way cool. So she tells us we can come back on Friday, so we do and she is not home..grrrrrrrr.  So on Saturday, we were on exchanges, I went to Vancouver ( YESSSS!! LOVE THAT PLACE!) with Hermana Clanton, and LeBaron stayed here with Hermana Villabos,  they went to see our new investigator, her name is Jalaani, and her mom answered, and went to get her, came back to the door WITH her, and told us to get lost. I was like are you KIDDING ME?!?!? She is 20!!!! Anyway, LeBaron said that Jalaani seemed super upset by it, so we don't get to teach her because her MOM dropped us. GUUHHHHH!!!!  Now I have been dropped before, and for some reason it was no big deal. I was excited to teach joy, and she dropped us and I was like fine whatever that is your choice, but man when we got dropped by Jalaani's mom, and Sis. Lebaron told me about it, I totally cried.  I just felt like someone took a sledge hammer to my heart. I was so sad! I can't even stand it. I love her so much. It really is crazy and awesome how you can love people.  We are able to see them and feel how Christ does, he loves us SO much, and I'm sure he hates when people aren't able to find him, or they choose not to.  We are so precious to him!!  I hope that she will call and tell us her mom calmed down and we can go teach her. I really want to teach her.

So exchanges. I went to Vancouver with Hermana Clanton.  Yes. She is a Spanish speaker. It was so cool but weird. cuz I don't speak Spanish...but she would tell me what was going on and if I wanted to talk she would translate for me. It was fun.  I had to introduce myself as Hermana Morgan. What the?  hahahaha.  Milagros means miracles. That is the extent of my Spanish. hahaha.  Oh and picito however you spell that means a little. Si. No. No hablo Española. yayayayay I don't even know if that is right. I'm a disgrace to the Spanish language.  It was awesome though.  I lovvvvee  Hermana Clanton. We had so much in common and it was so fun to be with her. And I love Vancouver.  I feel more at home there than here in Portland. I want to go to Washington!!!

Today I started studying the Christ like Attributes in Preach My Gospel, you all have one of those right?  Right?  No?  For shame!!! Go get one!!! Hurry!!! Now!!!!! hehehehehe.  But for reals you should all have one and study it, great book!  Lots to learn and not all for the missionaries, but guess what you are all missionaries anyway so jokes on you.  Anyway.  So I am going to study one, make some goals and develop (or try to anyway) that attribute. I just felt that focusing on those would really help with the way I am feeling because I know I am being a selfish jerk. so there. This week ---patience.  Bring on the trials.  In the MTC sister singleton said NOT to pray for patience because everyone that has, has gotten crazy hard trials. And I'm like well duh..how else are you supposed to learn it? I have been praying for that SINCE the MTC. hahah.

Anyway.  We found this awesome guy while tracting. His name is Steve, he is a Baptist and says he welcomes conversation, not conversion, hahahahah  But he was like yeah come back! I guess on Saturday they had an awesome conversation with him so I can't wait to teach him.

During our dinner time or any downtime we do puzzles. And I kinda went crazy. Sister Lebaron was laughing at me the whole time. I pretty much did the puzzle myself. It was a picture of underwater life. Fish and a turtle and stuff. and I was telling the fishies not to worry because I would find their home and put it together for them. And she just laughed and laughed and laughed. Granted this was at like 9:30 after we had planned. She said I looked at her with the straightest face and was like what is so funny? And she was like you know your companion is either losing it or tired when they start talking to the puzzle. hahah anyway. Sister Morgan’s going crazy. 

oh dad, Sister Lebaron calls 'pully throughys" celestial parking..hehehehe.

I think that is it for now!! Say your prayers, go to church, read the scriptures and go get your PMG, go do the work!

Adios!