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!

Vancouver

Hello,

This week has been kinda boring I guess. I love to have no car and be
walking, but at the same time it makes things a bit harder. We really
have to use our time perfectly or it seems there is not enough time
in the day to get anything done. We have pretty much spent all our
time Tracting this week,  which kinda bugs me. I know we have to do
that, but we also have people that already told us we could come back
and I hate putting that off.  Sister Zeyer likes to get the OYM's for
the day but that literally takes several hours then we have to go
home because it is dark and we are not supposed to be out walking. We
try to get members to drive us around after dinner so we can go visit
people, but for some reason it just doesn't happen. It is just
frustrating because I feel like I am so unproductive. Then on top of
that we never seem to get our dumb weekly planning done so that drags
out and I'm like this is so flippen unorganized!! Bah!
I felt pretty bad for my comp though, her toes were all bloody, but
luckily we got it all figured out, she just hurts a bit now. We sure
get some good exercise though! We walked home last night, it was only
3 miles, but it felt like 10 haha. But I'm happy to be walking!  It
takes us a little more than an hour to walk to the opposite end of our
area, which is where most of the houses are of course.

Anyway, on the brighter side we did find ONE new investigator after
talking to literally 20 people. We get to go visit her tonight so I'm
pretty excited about that. Her name is Miranda is married and has a
little girl. Sweet! Our other 2 supposedly solid investigators Isabel
and Cortina, things are mostly good with them. We finished teaching
Isabel all the lessons this week, but she has some issues with her
family and she says she feels pressured. Her family isn't super
supportive of her. She is 17. With Cortina, we are almost done
teaching her the lessons, and she has some concerns too about coffee
and stuff. But she says I know I will get baptized. They both want to
get baptized and are pretty certain about that... It is just a matter
of when.

So get this, I have a companion that doesn't like chocolate...umm?
What? How can you not like chocolate? Hehe... She likes white
chocolate but not regular chocolate.  Weird.

We had dinner with some members, and it was pretty funny, the member
was like okay sister Morgan get ready for interrogation, we don't care
about where you are from or how many siblings you have, we want to
know all the crap you have had to eat, what is the worst thing you
have had to eat on your mission? Haha, that family is a hoot, so
funny!

Anyway, Vancouver is different. It is nice but people seem to be a
little more harsh here. They are pretty wealthy here too. There are
some farms here, and there is even a grass strip that someone uses
for their planes - like a mini runway, kinda cool. It has been pretty
rainy this week, just a little more than usual. But it really just
feels like fall in Utah. Not too cold. On Tuesday it was sooo nice it
was sunny and blue skies and warm. We didn't need our coats! It was
great! But so far this area is nice, we have to heavily rely on the
members for pretty much everything: rides, people to teach, lessons,
etc. the members here are a little better as far as their willingness
to help, t it is still difficult because people are busy busy!

I think that is it for now :) love ya, miss ya, soon it will be 7
months that I've been gone, crazy, where did the time go, it goes
fast, but slow... It is weird!

Have a good week!

 

Vancouver at last

Hello,
So I am in Vancouver now. I still don't know my address... So if you-
would like to send anything send it to the mission office
2223 NW 99th St.
Vancouver, WA 98665

I live with members, the Child family. They are pretty cool, also
their daughter is serving in the Provo, Utah mission, she was
companions with sister Dahl, I thought that was pretty cool, and Bro
and Sis child thought that was pretty cool. Anyway small world I
guess.

My companion is Sister Zeyer. She is from Provo. She is the oldest and
has 2 younger brothers. She is interesting but I love her. She has
really long brown hair; it is pretty much down to her bum. But she is
sweet, a bit sassy and a little controlling but we get along. I don't
want to predetermine anything but I would not be surprised if this
companionship is difficult... She has been here in this area for 6
months. I'm a little intimidated to be her companion because she seems
to have a "this is MY area" attitude, so I do really know what to do
or what she expects of me. I try to avoid contention as much as
possible. She is just really hard to read.

We had a car when I first got here but we got it taken away because I
guess another area needed it more. So we no longer have a car, but our
area is pretty small compared to most. So it really isn't a big deal.
But it does make some things a lot harder. We have to be really on top
of how we use our time so we can get things done. Luckily the members
seem pretty willing to help too so we can get rides if we need.

As Sister Zeyer says - we have 2 pretty solid investigators who pretty
much know they will get baptized. So that is kind of exciting. I don't
really feel like I will much part of that process since they are
pretty much almost done with the lessons, but it will still be cool to
see.

I really don't know what else to say, this week is kind of a blur and
transfer weeks always seem to be less productive. Especially now since
we are adjusting to walking everywhere. I'm actually pretty happy
about that.

The members are nice and I feel that they understand their purpose
better, they are really funny and it seems like a really great Ward.
So yeah, that is it for now I guess!

6 Months and 2nd Transfer!

So on Wednesday I will be in my SECOND AREA: Vancouver zone, Mountain View Ward

IM GOING TO WASHINGTON!!!!! HECK YEAH!
My comp will be Sister Zeyer.

I only got to be with Sister Hughes for 3 dang weeks! Lame sauce! I
love Sister Hughes, so sad.
Then it was my last Sunday and it was fast and testimony meeting and
so my WML was like “you are prepared to give your testimony right?” And
I was like “yeah yeah.” Oh man talk about tear fest. It is the saddest
thing in the world! I can't gosh dang leave rocky butte! Man. It's
fine.

We had pepper salted squid this week, thank you Brother Krein! It was
the best thing I have had in my life! So good!

Cecelia dropped us. So no baptism for her. Bummer.
And of course, when we get transferred out we find all these awesome
people that we can't even teach because we are leaving.  This area is
being white-washed, so there will now be Elders in rocky butte.

We went on exchanges this week, so I got to have my last exchange with
Sister Fitt.  Super sad. But it was fun.

Honestly I can't remember much that happened from this week, I can't
seem to remember 5 seconds ago sometimes. Sister Hughes is hilarious
and I don't want her to leave! Bah!

So... I think that is it for now, next week will be crazy getting all
settled in, and trying to learn new people and a new area and all that
fun stuff.

Happy New Year!