New Investigator

Hey,

Wednesday we had a mission conference and we got new iPads. We don't have to use Facebook anymore, which I'm super happy about, because for me it is a huge distraction. But it is only temporary though. We got a new system thing I guess, so we are getting more strict training and then we get Facebook back.

We had a good lesson with Betty. She is our new investigator. We taught her the restoration and she seemed to take it pretty well. In her prayer she said "Lord, I've never looked into the Mormon religion, but I'm willin' to do it" it was pretty cool. She is from Alabama so she has an accent. I love her.

We went on exchanges on Thursday. I got to be with sister cone. I love her she is one of my favorite sisters. We went and got ice cream at Dairy Queen...one reason she is my favorite....anyway that night we didn't know what to do, and so we prayed and we were in my area and so she's like what do you want to do? I felt the spirit prompt me about one of our less active recent converts who has kind of dropped off the face of the earth. So we went and saw him and it was awesome. He usually doesn't say more than three words to us, but he opened up and he was all emotional and it was like YES! SPIRIT! It was cool....then he didn't come to church. 

Cortina got confirmed on Sunday,  that was cool. Then she told some of her story in relief society, and shared her testimony. Those are always the best things when your investigator/convert shares their testimony. I think they are going to call her has a ward missionary, so that will be pretty cool.

Other than that, not much to report. 

Thanks for the prayers, who knows what will happen from this point.

Love you all, hope to hear from you next time.

Baptism Day:)

Hi,

Someone from my last area got baptized this weekend, I found out on Tuesday and I got to go back for the baptism on Saturday. Then on Sunday Cortina got baptized. It was good. We do the restoration after the baptism while they are getting dressed, and it went really well except my companion is very verbal about something's she doesn't need to be. Anyway it went well and Cortina was so happy. It was a great baptismal service. 

We got a new investigator this week. Since Cortina got baptized and Isabel won't set a date we don't have anyone to teach so it is nice to have found a new investigator. We will see how that goes. 

Not really much else to report on, have a good week.

Sister Morgan

Happy Valentine's Day

Hello,

First off, thank you very, very much to those who sent valentine packages! Very kind of you! It was nice to know someone loves us after the week we have had. This week has been a toughy. Thank you for thinking of us! However, now seeing the giant stash of candy and goods I have...I don't think I will be needing any more for oh...about...the rest of my mission! Thank you for thinking of us! 

Also, I usually just send pictures to my mom and dad, and then they get posted on the blog (at least I think they do...) the blog is www.sistermorganwvm.blogspot.com so if you want to, go there and see more stuff ok? BUT if you want to, I had some friends that asked me to send them pics, so if you want them too just say so, and I will do my best to send them to you :) but you can always go to the blog.

I'm getting a new companion. That is pretty sad but I guess it is a good thing. It has been an interesting transfer, but I love sister Zeyer and it is hard to have to say Adios to her, but at the same time I know I have a friend when I get home, I'm glad we won't be together forever here, I just don't want our relationship to sour. My new companion will be sister Depew. (Da-pew...I said it WAY wrong...heheh) I'm feeling kinda nervous to take over this area after just one transfer but it will be fine I hope.

Cortina is still on track and pushing strong! She is so amazing! We got her program and everything all finished yesterday and she had her interview and passed. She is ready to go, all she needs is her dress for baptism and then the following Sunday she will be confirmed. She asked me to do her hair and I'm like uhhhh…okay we will see how that turns out but she is excited, so hopefully if it looks bad she will just get it wet and it will be fine....right? 

That's it for now.

7 Months Strong

Hello,

I don't really feel like there is too much to report on this week.
I have vertigo again! I have not felt good this week.
Cortina is still on date and doing really well and is on track to be
baptized on the 22nd. We have it all arranged and we have our last
lesson with her on Thursday and we will get the program all worked
out. Really exciting!

Isabel is a tough and weird situation. She is done with all the
lessons, she knows that this is true and she says she knows she needs
to be baptized and she wants to be baptized. But she says she wants to
feel more comfortable. And so we were like...well, in the gospel,
comfort isn't necessarily a good thing. She is kinda hard to figure
out and she says she doesn't know what is holding her back, but since
she is 17 there are issues with her family being supportive and stuff,
so we will see where that goes. We don't want to push her away but we
don't know what to do to pull her in and help her progress.

We will find out about transfers this Friday. This transfer went by so fast.

Happy 7 months to me :)
Happy Valentine's Day!
Love you all
~Sister Morgan

Transfer's coming

Hey everyone, how's it going?

Cortina is on date! It was a cool story because she has had a problem with coffee. We prayed and prayed that she would be able to overcome it. And so Wednesday night we had a lesson with her. We were nervous because we knew we would have to bring up the coffee thing eventually. And last time that happened she almost walked away completely. But we get started and she was like "so I'm ready to be baptized" and we were just like...”oh are you?!”  And she was like “yeah I have not had any coffee since my last surgery. Which was almost TWO MONTHS AGO!”  She hadn't told us because she just wanted to make sure she knew everything else that we needed to teach her and if she felt she could actually keep the commitment. But we were like...wha? We were so shocked!  And then she picked a date and asked Brother Morgan if he would baptize her! February 22nd :) 

So I'm not gonna lie, I was bad, and I was feeling kinda discouraged because I was like well I haven't done anything. I have nothing to do with this, and I just kinda felt bummed because I just want to feel like I'm actually doing something and being an effective missionary.  However, I had to quickly correct myself. When it all comes down to it, it is the Lord.  I have found so many times in my mission where we work as hard as we can and we see miracles, but not where we expected them. We can talk to people all day if we wanted to and none of them are interested, but I think when the lord sees your desire, and your diligence and OBEDIENCE, he blesses you with people to teach - whether that was someone you talked to or not. We have nothing to do with it. The lord prepares these individuals hearts, it is him. I just teach them what they need to know and he takes care of the rest! I'm grateful that I get to be a part of that miracle. I get to witness it. That is a blessing. It is not about me and what I do. This is the Lords work and it is about what he does.

Then we had zone conference this week. Those are always good. I always love when we get to hear President and Sister Taylor speak. It is the best. It really is truly amazing how close you all get as a mission, I know it sounds cheesy but you can just feel the love!! Haha it was really good. President always talks forever and he is really funny, but he is a powerful speaker and the spirit is just amazing. It is awesome! 

The weekend was kinda rough, we have had some weird things going on,  we just haven't really felt good. But it has been a good week, kinda slow, but good. 

In June or July this year they will be making the Yakima Washington mission. That will be so weird... I could potentially finish my mission there. That would be so sad to leave the WVM! But we don't know yet who will be affected. The number of Sisters in this mission has gone waaaay down because they all went home!! A lot of the missionaries came from the Portland mission, and so now all those Sisters are home. It is crazy. Anyway. I am grateful this week to be a missionary. It is so hard, but how blessed we are to be able to be involved in this work. It's hard though. 

Next week will be my 7th birthday!!! Haha whoa, almost half done. I can't believe it!!!!

Love you all, thanks for writing!

Have a good week!

Long-Great week

Brace yourselves... It's a long one :) So Tuesday was flippen amazing. At first it was like any other day. We got up, and we went out at 11ish to contact a referral, came home, had lunch, after that we slept the rest of our lunch hour on sister child's couch. I guess we both crashed because sister child was like man you girls were out! So after a good nap we went out to tract. So that was from about 1:30-2 till dinner at 5:30. What was cool about this is that we got over our goal for OYMS that day. It is a promise from an apostle that if we get at least 10 OYMs a day that our baptisms will double. So we are asked by our leaders here to get at least 10 a day. Which in Portland - that is no big deal, but here, that is flippen hard, we are lucky if we get 5. Anyway, plus it is hard on Monday to OYM because it is dark out, and we don't do it during the day because it is P-day. Anyway I'm rambling...so we got 14 OYMs that day. Um.. Wow. 14?!?!? Amazing!! Granted it took us that whole time to get all of them but that is a miracle that people answered their doors or there was some people on the street. So after we tracted, we got a ride to dinner. We had dinner with Sister Finch, she is a single mom with 2 awesome kids. She also invited her friend Joelynn. I had heard about Joelynn before. On Monday we walked really close to her house and so we called her to see if we could stop by, but we didn't because she didn't answer. So we sit down to eat and Joelynn is like “so, I have come around with the Book of Mormon. I think I can read it now.” And sister Zeyer literally is staring at her like 'excuse me?' She was so shocked! I guess Joelynn had this problem with prophets and the Book of Mormon because she thought we worshipped them or something, and everyone got up to bear their testimony about the prophet and this and that and not Christ.  Which makes sense.  She hates that.  But she was like “I understand, I worked through it and I think I need another lesson now.” And so we taught her right there and Sister Finch was like “so you’re getting baptized, pick a day” and at first it was just this joke and we were all teasing her. But to me I just knew she knew she needed to be baptized, I got the impression that she wanted it. By the end of the lesson, she had put herself on date - let me repeat that - she put HERSELF ON DATE TO BE BAPTIZED. And she had texted lots of people to tell them. So. MIRACLE!!!! That literally fell into our lap, we did nothing, especially me, that was my first time meeting her and she was like teach me, okay I will be baptized. February 21st baby! She really doesn't have much to overcome as far as commandments and things go, and she said I know I won't know everything at first and I will just have to have that faith and that is okay. So yeah! Sweet! Please keep her in your prayers anyway :) also she has 2 kids that are of baptism age and she was talking about them taking the lessons too...so um... Good deal!! She is prepared!! It is pretty cool, with Joelynn and her 2 kids, Cortina and Isabel, that is 5 baptisms. These are all solid people, holy fetch. Miracle! Now Joelynn is really struggling and has lots of doubts and stuff, and she didn't come to church, but I have much hope and faith for her. We might not keep her on date but I feel confident she will come around. If Isabel is slipping and Cortina is like can you teach me faster? Hahah awesome!  Sister Zeyer is just great. She is so funny. After we got home from dinner she is like “I need to pinch myself, that did not just happen, did that really happen?! I just can't, I just can't even, sister Morgan!”  She says that a lot "I just can't even!" It is pretty funny. When I first got here, she says, “sister Morgan, I suffer from ELD.” And I was like what is that? And she was like “excessive laughing disorder”..it is pretty funny, she is kinda like me and will just randomly start laughing at something that happened 5 years ago.. It is pretty great. On Wednesday night (and all day Thursday) we went on exchanges. It was terrible, haha! I have only been in this area for about 3 weeks now and I was staying in my area and Sister Zeyer left. And I was like are you kidding me? But honestly the reason it was terrible is because I didn't get to be with Sister Zeyer! I seriously wanted to cry when she left! I was like you can't leave! I JUST CAN'T EVEN RIGHT NOW! it was the saddest! Well I'm pleased to tell you that I didn't cry and it was just fine.  I was with Sister Major. I'm pretty sure I have never walked so much in my life as we did that day. I don't know how but I wasn't too sore. But man I slept good that night! It was a good transfer - another miracle we got over 20 OYMs and we only tracted for like an hour. Lots of people were home and we did more than just tract, there were a lot of people on the street too so holy! Awesome! It was a good day. And we got s new gator I will tell you about later ( I rhymed! Haha)  It is funny that my first impression of Sister Zeyer, I was kinda worried and I instantly was stressed out, I don't deal with change as well as I think I do, and I just worry worry worry and I thought that it was going to be a long transfer. Buuuut so far it has proven to be the best. I love Sister Zeyer so incredibly much. She is wonderful, we think things similarly, we have the same opinions on most things, we feel things similarly and we are just pretty much the same person. I feel like I have said that about all my companions but I feel like Sister Zeyer in more ways could be my clone. It's a good thing I love her so maybe in a way it will teach me to love myself and be nicer to myself hahah.. I can dream :) yes she is pretty disobedient at times and that is super frustrating, but hopefully we will get through that. Random thing about the church that is awesome...it's the same..everywhere you go. It's not like oh I'm some random Christian pastor and I'm gonna start my own church here. That is something pretty common, people think that they can just go to any church, and it's like there are so many different ones! How can people NOT wonder about which one is true?? You know? I'm so happy about that. This church is the same where ever you go. The gospel doesn't change. God himself said "I am the same yesterday, today and forever" so why would his gospel change, why would the organization be different? Why would he not call a prophet? It's just not logical to me. Rant over :)  So on Thursday, we got this random call from this guy, and he wanted us to come meet with him and talk about the Book of Mormon. I had no clue who he was and didn't have my actual companion with me because we were on exchanges..and so I didn't really know what to do, but we found a member and we went that night. I was for some reason super uneasy about it but we taught him the restoration and invited him to be baptized and he accepted. He says he already knows the Book of Mormon is true. But then he calls the next morning and was like come see me today. And I just felt all icky again and Sister Zeyer was like “whoa hold up something is just not right.” And we were both feeling real uneasy about it, and it is just difficult because he doesn't give us very much time and so we are scrambling to find a member and it is last minute for them and so it was just stressful BUT like an hour and a half before, we finally found a member. Sister Zeyer and I prayed about what to do because we both felt uneasy, but after we were just like we still don't know what to do but we felt a little better about it, and we just decided to go in and see what his intentions were, what he wanted from the visits, and then invite him to church (Sister Zeyer says "if he is gonna call us every day he better come to church.”) so we went and he didn't remember a single thing we taught him the day before. He said he read but he could not tell us what he read.  Oh and he didn't come to gosh dang church. So who knows what we will do with him. We don't really know how far it will go. This transfer has been good but interesting, lately I just feel super distracted and unmotivated. All these great things are happening though. And I feel like I am dealing with trials or emotions a bit better, but I'm still crazy so who knows. Dad, be assured that someone has taken the responsibility to tease me. He says "well if I don't tease you, then you'll go to pot!" Wow... Okay haha it was pretty funny.  We ate dinner with the Morgan's last night. They are so fun but it was confusing because every time they would talk about Sister Morgan we were like....which one? There are 4 Morgan families in this Ward, only one of them is active. But these Morgan's are super cool! Loved spending time with them and Sister Morgan is like umm, I could be your family haha. Love them!  I think that is it for now! Sorry for the novel this week. I don't think I have written that much in a long time!  Love ya!