Happy New Year

Hello,

This week has been good.

We have Cecelia on date for baptism in Jan, so pray like crazy that we can help her make it!!! 

It seems like some things have just fallen into our laps this week we found a lot of new potentials and are pretty excited to start moving with that list.

No weird orange hair guys have hugged me so that is always a plus.

I really love Sister Hughes; I hope we can stay together this coming transfer.  She probably thinks I'm crazy! There was one day we were tracting and I saw a big orange cat, and I was like "kitty!!" and I was like kissing at it and telling it to come here and she goes "whoa.." and I was like “what?”  And she sees the cat and was like OH! There was a little greenish blue cat statue and she thought I was talking to it hahah, It is so funny! I'm not the best story teller, so it was probably funnier if you saw it. But she is funny and we have a good time together. We are very similar in lots of ways (which can be annoying) but we get along, and I really enjoy her.

We have an oriental place next to us called HONG PHAT, so we went and got some goodies hahaha...them rice crackers man...so good and miso soup! Sweet!

Also, I will be sending out letters, but thank you all so much for sending cards and gifts and think of us during Christmas, we were spoiled!!

Thank you all very much!

Love ya!

Merry Christmas

Hi,

******I WILL BE SKYPING HOME AT 5:00 PM YOUR TIME**** if that needs to change we will call before, and give you some time to get things set up, the reason it is so late is because Sister Hughes mom works weird hours so she wanted to make sure she was home :-) so...if anything changes I will call dad's cell ok? Ok :-)

Transfers came and went, it is super weird having a new companion, and honestly we are crazy similar in some ways...I see how some of my ways and mannerisms can be so annoying and frustrating. haha, but she really is great. She has been out for 4 months (interesting companionship, I know) she is also from Orem, and NO I didn't know her, apparently she was in the marching band, but she went to Mountain View but she took band at Orem High, so she also had Mr. Summers. Anyway. She looked familiar to me but other than that…didn't know her.  Sister Hughes is her name :-)

We went out street contacting one day and this guy with this orange wig thing on passed us so we started talking to him...he had something up with him and I tried to give him a card and he started hugging me and I was looking at my companion like SAVE ME!! Don’t just stand there!! hahah and she is just laaaughing..Jerk. Anyway the funniest part of the story is that we went to dinner right after with the Vippermans (LOOOOVE them!) and Bro. Vipperman was like “Did I see you getting hugged by some dude with Orange Hair?” and I was like.....yes.... and he was like “I saw it and thought "should I go save them?" and I was like ohh my heck!! haha I was like so embarrassing that you witnessed that…and he just laughed. Oh man so funny! 

Bro Vipperman is in the YM presidency and they are just killin' it. They are so awesome with their calling.

So I was volunteered by my former companion to play in sacrament in her place since she was getting transfered. they asked her to sing, but she was leaving so she is like OH SISTER MORGAN PLAYS THE VIOLA! and I was like I hate you. so Sister Wilkinson wrote me some music, and I had it but there were lots of things that needed to be changed, so Saturday roles along and I FINALLY get the music. Plus I haven't played in like 2 years, PLUS I'm a MISSIONARY so I don't have hours and hours to practice, the work is my first priority, anyway, so I played 3 songs, and wow, it was terrible. I was shaking SO bad, and it was just bad. Oh man. I guess it could have been worse but holy…and brother Krein, bless him, he was like a little kid and he was like WOW great job!! That was fantastic! Wow!! and I was like BLESS YOU GOOD SIR!! haha. She wants me to play one more piece... and I'm like yo sister--did you HEAR that?! 

Anyway, the holidays really slow things down because everyone is out of town and all that, so lots of people we are teaching don't want to meet with us. But we found one guy named Scott, he said we could come back and he seemed pretty nice and sincere about it. So we will see how that goes.

Okay byee.

I think I know who sent me this, but I'm not 100% sure, there was no
address on the box, but to whomever sent this, thank you! Very cute,
and also tasty! :)

First Transfer!!!

So- we are getting "ET'ed" this week or and "emergency transfer" but not really, it is just a weird transfer because some people are going home so they can go to school so with the scheduling it would have been messed up so they just cut it in half. So I will stay here in Rocky Butte, and Sister LeBaron is going to Longview.  

We had interviews this week, that was good.  I always hate talking to Pres. Taylor but then I feel better after, for the most part. He said "I don't know why I kept you two together for so long" and I was thinking I'm glad you now realize that!! hahah. My new companion will be Sister Hughes.

We also went on exchanges. I got to go to Washington with Sister Schmokel. I don't know how to spell her last name right, but she is cool. I love her. It was great!

Okay y'all better pray for me this week because on Sunday, because sister LeBaron is a turd hahaha she told them that I play the viola, and she was going to sing but now she is getting transferred…so guess who gets to take her place. I have not played for like 2 years and I will have VERY little time to practice so just pray for me k?? hahaha. But seriously, pray that I will do a decent job.  This will give me an opportunity to keep my promise to Mr. Davis - which was "if you get any compliments- you say "Mr. Davis Taught me that!" hehe mostly with Vibrato, he was surprised at how fast I picked it up, but I kinda already knew how to do it from watching him.  I will try to do a good job for him :-)

Nothing too exciting this week. Sorry.  We did have a good lesson with Herb and Josh; Herb said he believes the gospel and priesthood were restored through joseph smith so we were like HOLY! He usually doesn't tell us anything so this is amazing.

Christiana Sweetwood, we are trying to teach her family, she has been kinda sick lately though but we had a good lesson with her about how the gospel blesses families and that was awesome.

We met a guy in McDonalds because our iPad didn't work and they had free Wi-Fi, he isn't a new investigator yet, but he had a lot of questions about the Book of Mormon and it was really cool, so we will see how that goes.

That's it for now. Hope you all have a good week. 

5 months

Hi,

We had a mission Christmas party on the 2nd. It was nice to go to the temple with our mission Pres. and mom (Sister Taylor) we spent the rest of the day at the mission office and didn't get home till like 8:30pm.

It seems like the work here has slowed waaaaaaaay down.  We still don't have any progressing investigators, we are considering who to drop, for certain people, revelation is harder to recognize--perhaps we aren't getting any BECAUSE we are supposed to drop them.  And it has been difficult to talk to people, it has been cold and wind and a bit rainy this week, so no one is really out walking around on the streets, but then no one answers their doors either. So that is super frustrating.

BECCA & MELISSA - oh girls, I sent you a card today, but I just wanted to tell you again for the 80th time...thank you thank you thank you!!! For the package you sent me, you are so sweet to think of me and it made my day!! Thank you for putting such a cute idea together for me!! Love ya!!!

We invited Herb and Josh to be baptized, they literally went silent, and it was so freaking awkward. So...yeah, but they agree with like everything we teach them so what the flip? 

THEN I find out my most favorite teacher in the WORLD passed away. Man I am so mad at myself. I thought about going to see him SO MUCH before my mission and I was dumb and never did. Then last week he was in my mind like crazy and I was like what the? And I was missing orchestra and UVYSO and private lessons and all that and I was telling my comp all these memories and stories and then -- that. bah-hum-bug. 

l

Anyway.  Not much to report on this week. 

Adios.

Temple Tomorrow!!!

Hello,

Hope Thanksgiving was good for you all. I feel like so much happened this week but at the same time like NOTHING happened this week.

So last Monday began the drama of the week...it was a hard day, then Tuesday and Wednesday we were in a Trio with Sister Cone (or “Ray of Sunshine” she should be called) and then Sister LeBaron got sick and we were stuck in the house for like 3 days, then I thought I was getting what she had but luckily I am fine. Oh man. I am so sick of sickness. It is like on and off and I'm like okay. I'm done. And I'm taking my vitamin D okay? :-) Then we made some trips to talk to president and it has just been crazy. Okay.

SO. I have just really been struggling with myself and why I am not seeming to change, or just get over certain things concerning the way I am. Well Lo and behold Sister Morgan discovered what we call a brain. And USED IT. Wow. So I was like “okay what the flip can I do that is in MY control to help me change and be better and also more effective tool/missionary?”.  Well-"Without charity you are nothing" Moroni 7. Read it. So one day in personal study I'm just totally ticked and feeling crappy and frustrated and I was like praying my guts out to be like “WHAT THE HECK should I do so that I can be a nice civil person?” Well I opened PMG to the Christ like attributes, I had been thinking charity for a while but I had never really looked at it that much or made goals. So as I was praying my guts out I was like I will look at that. I so read through it and read all the scriptures with it and by the time personal study was over I felt like a million bucks. Then I was like WHAT THE CRAP SISTER! Why didn't you figure this out sooner?! Geez. Anyway, so I have made goals and such to help me become more charitable. Hopefully. We will see.

I also started a gratitude journal. The Rules are - you have to write in it EVERY DAY, at least ONE thing, and you CANNOT repeat ANYTHING ever. So far so good! It really does help. (Shocker right?) But when we are so focused on the bad and the negative (which I am PRO at,) we only find the bad and negative, but when we focus on the good, we find more good and see how much blessings we truly do have. So that is your job, go to Walmart, get a tiny notebook and start a gratitude Journal.

We had our last lesson with one of our members Philip, SO SAAAAD. But now we are teaching his brother so it will be cool, all is well, all is well!!!

We dropped Brother Pyle this week. Did I tell you that whole story? Okay here it is BRACE YOURSELVES. (novel coming up): So, it was during weekly planning like a month or so ago, we were like what the flip are we going to do with Bro. Pyle? He has some mental illnesses, and so for that reason things are kinda difficult for him. BUT he is still able to do plenty. Anyway. He never keeps his commitments and I had been thinking of just dropping him for a while anyway. So I finally present the idea to my companion and she was like “no..I don't know..umm”. Annoying.  Bro. Pyle's goal is to be active in the church and go to the temple, he has been taught by the missionaries for like a year now, and he still hasn't done anything. So we had started to be more upfront with him. He gets babied a lot and so I was like I'm DONE with that! So he called and he was making all these excuses and saying he didn't feel up to coming to church.  So we got all frustrated with him and I was about to throw the phone across the room so I was like “we need to go now, sorry”. We were both getting angry so we had to cool off and get the spirit back so we could talk to him. So we would call him every Sunday to get him to come to church, when he didn't we called him that night and asked him why he didn't come. So after much frustration and lessons and phone calls, we are like okay make a plan and pray about it. So while we were praying Sister Lebaron asked if it was right to drop him. Then after the prayer she was like I got tingles...that means it is right.. haha! So I was like well I agree. then we are still trying to figure everything out and he calls us and tells us to call a lady in another ward because she knows him better and I was like great, he probably called her and told her we were mean or something to him and so now she is gonna chew us out. so I call her and she was like yeah if you need to drop him that is fine I get it, and we were like what the, she backed us up and was nice to us. Amazing! Brother Pyle has made Sloooooooooow progress but that is over the course of 2-3 yrs, and then he calls us and tells us that all the symptoms he is having are because of meds. and so we are like okay, well that is not his fault and we can't get after him for that..so now what? do we still drop him or what? so then he actually starts making an effort to come to church, and we were like what? Now he is trying and stuff, what the heck do we do NOW? are we still dropping him?? and so, feeling rather conflicted we pray again and get this whooosh of peace over us when we asked if that was still the plan basically, so we are like okay we are dropping him. THEN he is like doing so good, he is like all the sudden keeping his commitments (still not coming to church though) and we were like oh my heck, this is not happening, what the heck are we going to do he is doing so good NOW, but we are told to drop him. Now at the time I was like I don't want to question the Lord, I had remembered something Bishop Woolley told me when I was trying to figure out going on a mission, he said "The Lord doesn't just change his mind. Once he gives you a confirmation, that's it, after that it is a trial of your faith." I have always remembered that. So I was like Sister LeBaron, we have had TWO confirmations to drop him, we are dropping him. end of story. so we were all freaked out to do it and still feeling SO uncertain and before we went in to that lesson we were so nervous because of how he could react. well, Joan, his wife was there too, and she is on and off hating us, and so we are like if she is there are we still dropping him, what do we do. I realize now as I type this how dumb all my thoughts are..whoops. But I was like no, I'm done putting things off to the side for her sake, she doesn't even care, if she is there we are doing the lesson we have planned and then dropping him. So we prayed our guts out so we could do this lovingly and that he wouldn't be crushed. Well, to end this, we left and he had a big smile on his face and no tears were shed. BOOM. The Lord is amazing folks. Holy cow.

We have started teaching Leon and had an awesome restoration lesson with him. He is super gold, and he studies like crazy and asked for a blessing and comes to church and asks tons of questions. But then he read online somewhere about Joseph Smith and his 30 wives, called us and told us to get lost. He didn't even give us a chance to explain anything to him and he just hung up on us so I was like ...great. That was this morning. What a great start to the day. People and their dang agency. We’ll see what happens there. He has an awesome friend that is a member that he visits regularly, so hopefully she can talk some sense into him.

HOLY!! TOMORROW IS THE MISSION CHRISTMAS PARTY, and guess where I get to go?!?! THE TEMPLE!!! AH!!! I can hear the angels singing!! Oh man I can't wait. I CAN NOT WAIT. TOMORROW. you're only a daaaay away!!!!

Okay so just something I want to share with you all in closing. I LOVE the Prophet Joseph Smith. I love him. I didn't always, but before my mission and now on my mission I just love that man.  There is no way that he was not a prophet of God. No way. I could not imagine what he went through to do the work that God had for him, I have just been thinking a ton about that lately, but I think Elder Holland sums up some of my thoughts better, so I will let you listen to him Go here -->  http://www.mormonchannel.org/video/mormon-messages/topics/book-of-mormon?v=911029448001

Okay wait one more thing. Tis the season :-)  The Savior is the most important.  We just had Thanksgiving and now Christmas is around the corner.  What is the greatest gift you have been given? Are we thankful for the savior and his life, that he so freely gave for us?  It is his Gospel, his life, his sacrifice that brings true meaning into anything. I hope we can remember that not only this time of the year but every day. Watch this one too --> http://www.mormon.org/christmas?cid=HPFR112814529

Okay, that's it, adios!