Sister Tenney and Adrianna!  She is so cute!  And she is only four!

LOVE being a missionary!

Sister Tenney is getting transferred :(  I will miss her!

Sister Saunders just got baptized!  She is the best!

Happy Day!

"You want to be happy? Forget yourself and get lost in this great cause, and bend your efforts to helping people stand higher, lift those with feeble knees, hold up the arms of those that hang down. LIVE the gospel of Jesus Christ!" President Hinckley

So, this week has been super crazy!  We got to teach Dorothy a lot this week, and she was so excited to be baptized!  :)  On Wednesday, we had our district meeting and the carpet cleaners showed up!  Yep.  They were cleaning the carpets while we are trying to have this spiritual district meeting!   Anyway, after district meeting, Dorothy came for her interview and brought Adrianna with her (her four year old granddaughter).  Adrianna is so cute!  :)  She decided that she wanted to comb my hair, but none of us had a comb. So she decided to use a train to comb my hair with –yeah, that did not work very well!  At least it didn’t get stuck! When the sisters got back (they went to get pizza for lunch) we all went into the kitchen and Adrianna decided to play hide-n-seek.  Only, there was no where to hide!  So we pretended to look in the cupboards and everything and she just laughed in the corner.  But she really loves Sister Tenney and I and will always run up and give us hugs—Dorothy was so excited after her interview- She was dancing! And Saturday was such an amazing day.  When her friend came with Adrianna, She ran right up to us and sat by us. . . we got a ton of great pictures and had everyone write testimony cards for her.  It was amazing!

Then, that night, we got transfer calls.  Sister Tenney is leaving! :(  Sad day!  It really threw us off because we both thought she wasn’t going to be transferred!  And in all the craziness, we forgot to check with the Leinbachs about a ride for Dorothy for church!  So the next day, we get to church and Brother Leinbach asks us if Dorothy is here and we were like, "no, isn't Sister Leinbach getting her?"  And she wasn’t!  And we couldn’t get a hold of her!  So Brother Leinbach had to go get her, only problem is that she lives 15 mins away from the church and he was leaving right when the meeting was starting!  Sister Tenney was freaking out!  She also had to give a talk so that probably didn’t help her stress levels at all!  But Dorothy finally got there (though she missed the sacrament) with Adrianna.  The bishop decided that we would do the confirmation at the end, so everything is going great, Sister Tenney's talk, Elder Smith talked, and then Brother Jordan (he is the best!  He comes to our missionary coordination meetings even though he got called to be a seminary teacher now).  Then, all of the sudden, Dorothy and Adrianna get up and walk out.  Then Brother Jordan is ending his talk so we had to run to the bathroom where Adrianna was taking her sweet time and tell Dorothy they were waiting for her!  ahh!  It was so crazy!

After sacrament meeting, everyone was coming up to say goodbye to Sister Tenney and Brother Leinbach wanted to talk to us about a bunch of things, and we were talking to the bishop and we finally made it to Sunday school when someone else came and got us! It was chaos!  But Dorothy, now Sister Saunders  had an interview with the bishop on Sunday because she is heading to Durum for thanksgiving with her family and there is a temple trip coming up December 6th and she is going to be able to go!  We just had to get her records turned in so she can get a member record number and they are picking her up in Durum on the way to the temple so she can do baptisms!  So exciting!  And she is so excited to go to the temple!

After church, we went to the Leinbachs for lunch and to plan for the up coming Christmas party.  While we were there, we got a call from the Zone Leaders and I was like, oh, probably for Sister Tenney. Yeah—no.  It was for me and apparently I am training!  Talk about crazy!  I thought I was safe because calls for trainers are supposed to happen Saturday morning! We had gotten a missed call from them yesterday, but when we called back, they didn't answer and it was like 6 or so when they called so we figured it was for something else all together.  So that really threw me off!  Of course, we also got a new phone this week and it is a pain!  We have not figured it out and I am so slow at texting on that thing— I think it is even worse than the last one!

Anyway, a little after that, we went with Sister Leinbach to pick Sister Saunders and Adrianna up to take them to the church so they could meet Brother and Sister Brewer and head off to Durum. Apparently, Brother Leinbach had forgotten to tell us that we were supposed to call them after we had picked Sister Saunders and Adrianna up so we were waiting and waiting!  We finally texted them and figured out the problem . . . Best moment ever: Brother Brewer is buckling in Adriana's car seat and she starts rubbing his head and asks, "what happened to all of your hair- it fell out!"  "why did it do that?" :) haha.  I love little kids! :)

Anyway, sorry, this was super long and dramatic!

I hope y”all are having a great week! :)

Sister Morris

A good deed is never lost; he who sows courtesy reaps friendship, and he who plants kindness gathers love! St. Basil

So Dorothy is super excited for her up-coming baptism!  We had Stake Conference yesterday, which was soo good!  President and Sister Craven were there because he was asked to speak.  I don’t know if I am biased since he is my mission president, but i thought his talk was by far the best!  He talked a lot about the temple and how absolutely NO ONE can make it to the celestial kingdom without the ordinances of the temple.  We must share the gospel so people we love can be there too!  And baptism is just the first step-as we are baptized; we should be looking towards the temple.  Anyway, we actually had quite a few investigators there and we know Dorothy loved it!  We were out in the hall talking to her afterwards, and our Zone leaders came up to say hi.  And she invited them to her baptism!  

So we also have a great investigator who we go teach at Green haven Rehabilitation Center.  I can't remember if I told y’all about him or not, but he is engaged to Sister Liverman (who also lives there). Pretty much one day we got a call from her telling us that she wanted us to come visit a special friend.  So we went and found out she was engaged and gave him a book of Mormon (turns out the elders had started to teach him at one point when he was living in a different facility, but the facility told him they couldn’t come teach him anymore) and he was really excited to get another book since he had lost his other one.  Anyway, the funny thing is every time we teach him, we end up with a bunch of people in this tiny little room!  Sister Liverman and the two of us, and for one lesson we also had Sister Baker and Sister Williams there and Brother Walker showed up (he is Sister Liverman's home teacher).  And the next time, we somehow ended up with Sister Fox, Sister Matthews, us, Alena (aka mini Sister Fox), and Sister Liverman there, plus Paul's roommate was there!  Yah, that many people do not fit very easily!  But Paul really loved it when we talked about the first vision and showed him the picture.  He asked if we could frame it for him and hang it on the wall with Joseph Smith's description of the event.  He also wants to be baptized, but with his Cerebral Palsy, we are going to have to plan that out really well.

It was really cold this week!  There was one day where the high was like 30 something.  Of course, we are on our bikes...yay.  Luckily, we had a bunch of lessons that day so we had some members that went out with us and didn’t have to bike too much. We did have to bike over to Dorothy's, but that only takes like 30 minutes or so when you go really fast.  Of course, we couldn’t feel our fingers anymore by the time we got there...which was crazy cause I was wearing two pairs of gloves! Oh well.  Life of a missionary!

Anyway, I hope y’all are having a great day! :)

Sister Morris

 Ahh! The bush is on fire! haha. 

Not really, but it looks pretty neat! 

                                            

Who is ready to brave the cold?

  We are!

"Look for Christ and you will find Him. And with Him everything else." C.S. Lewis

This week, we went on exchanges with the High Point sisters, I went to High Point with Sister Perez and Sister Jorganson came here with my companion.  Sister Perez and I had lots of fun!  One of my favorites was a less active sister who welcomed us in and then asked "do you want some popcorn?" We said "no thanks" so she asked "do you want cookies?"  "No thanks" again so she said "At least let me get you a drink!" Feeling a little bad, we said, "okay."  A short while later, she comes out with drinks, cookies, and an enormous bag of Halloween candy. ha-ha.  Guess she doesn’t take no for an answer! But we talked about the sacrament and the Atonement and shared the Mormon message –Always Remember Him (I love that one —One of my favorites!) We also taught this lady who has five kids and also had some nieces and nephews over...Yeah, talk about chaos!!  We managed to keep the kids attention for a short time, but then they got bored and started poking each other and running around and being crazy. Not sure how much the spirit was there, but Joanna and her oldest son were paying attention and answering questions we asked them... :) This Sunday we had the primary program! With all the breathing into the microphone, whispering, yelling and nose picking included! They were all really cute! We also had a Zone Conference and really focused on the importance of Sacrament meeting.  It was great!  After, I went to use the bathroom (keep in mind I have been to this building multiple times for meetings and P-days) and I totally walked into the utility closet instead!  Ha ha!  I am sure the look on my face was the best ever!  I was so confused as to where the bathroom had gone!

Also this week, we got a new referral from the Summit Elders and we were really excited to go see her!  So we called and set up an appointment and everything and then when we got there, we figured out that she and her family had been baptized almost three years ago and they go to the summit ward every week! (They are from Africa and speak French.  They have classes in French in the Summit ward).  Justyne said that she didn't think the elders had understood what she was trying to say and that she sees them every week at church.  She is really sweet!

We met with Dorothy quite a few times this week.  She is so excited about the gospel and just loves learning!  We taught her the Plan of Salvation, the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the stop-smoking lesson, and talked about the baptismal interview questions.  She was so excited when she found out that we came to this earth to get bodies so the fall was not a horrible awful sin!  It was part of the plan!  She also loved learning about the gospel of Jesus Christ because she knows it is true.  Sister Leinbach went with us to teach the stop smoking lesson. Dorothy had already stopped smoking at this point, but it actually takes the nicotine a month to get out of your blood stream.  The stop smoking lesson is designed to get the nicotine out of the blood stream in a week so that the urge to smoke is no longer there.  Dorothy was very interested in the different methods that can help her, but she knows that prayer is her best tool.  We talked about the baptismal interview questions so she knows what she needs to know and be doing before baptism.  She is really excited to get baptized because she knows this is the true church she has been looking for her whole life!

Anyway, hope y’all are having a fantastic week!

Sister A Morris

Hem your blessings with thankfulness so they don't unravel!

So last Monday, we got a text that we had a new referral for someone named Doherty Sunders.  And we were like, is that a girl name or a boy name?  Guess we will find out!  So the next day, we looked up the referral and saw that it was a self-referral and they wanted a book of Mormon.  So we drove to the address and we were like, no cars!  Oh well,  lets go knock anyway.  So as we were walking up, I saw the TV on and got excited because someone was home.  When we get up to the door, we are about to knock when we hear someone start unlocking the door.  And all of the sudden this lady comes out and says, "I am so glad to see you!!  I didn’t know when you were coming but I am so happy!  Go around to the back and I'll be right there!"  So we walked around to the back trying to figure out what is going on here and she comes out.  So we asked for her name and it turns out it is Dorothy Saunders.  Her brother has been a member of the church for years and has been trying to get her interested, and she finally is!  So we started teaching her the Restoration and she was getting so excited because she has seen the Restoration movie and remembered a lot from what her brother told her and she pretty much taught us the Restoration lesson!  She is so excited to learn more about the gospel and she asked us if we could get a ride for her to church this Sunday and asked what we thought she should read in the Book of Mormon and asked if we could come back and see her next Tuesday and she is just amazing!  And she said that she would most definitely be baptized!  So Sister Tenney and I just walked away from that lesson on a spiritual high!  Best day ever!  Then, a few days later, we were in our apartment making lunch (well, I was actually baking sugar cookies...I couldn't decide what I wanted to eat!) when Dorothy called.  And she said that she had talked to the sisters on Temple Square again and they had told her to call us so that she could tell us she was getting baptized on Nov 15th!  Haha.  First time I have ever had an investigator call us and tell us when they were getting baptized! (By the way, I totally burnt those cookies I was making...yeah...I was so not thinking about cookies at that point!) So we told her that we would have to meet with her quite a few times between then and now and she was like, "sure, that would be great!" So we planned to have lunch and a lesson over at the Leinbach's after church.  (The Leinbachs were giving her a ride to church).  Then later, the same day, she called and talked to us about what she was reading in the Book of Mormon and she was talking all about how Lehi's dream of the tree of life is so amazing and how people try to mock us and turn us away from God.  And then she told us that she wanted to get to 2 Ne by tomorrow for church so that she would be prepared.  And she really enjoyed church!  Especially Sunday school; the lesson was on baptisms for the dead and she loved it because she discovered that we do baptisms for the dead because the dead don't have bodies anymore and they can't be baptized!  And when we taught her the Plan of Salvation at the Leinbachs, it was amazing!  We taught her about how Adam and Eve partaking of the fruit was part of the plan so we could gain bodies and she started crying because she had never heard that before but it made so much sense.  While we were talking about Earth Life, we also talked about commandments that God gives us like the word of Wisdom (she had told me during church that she smokes and she really wants to stop and since her baptism date is so soon, we decided we needed to address it now).  And as soon as we had told her about the word of wisdom, she told us she wasn't going to drink coffee anymore and she was going to stop smoking as well.  She is seriously the best investigator ever!  We hardly even teach her anything that she doesn't already know because of previous experiences in her life!  At the end, we asked her about the baptismal date and talked about how it probably wouldn't work that weekend because we have stake conference and we asked her if we could move it to the next weekend and she got really excited because then her brother will be able to come!  And when we told her he could baptize her, she started crying.  I seriously love Dorothy!  She is the best!  And this morning, she texted us asking if drinking hot chocolate was okay. :)  And she said she is struggling to not smoke so we sent her 1 Ne 3:7.  When God gives us commandments, he makes a way for us to accomplish them! Anyway, we are really excited about Dorothy!  Sorry so long!

Hope y’all are having a blessed day!

Sister Morris

 

my companion kind of scares me when she looks at me like that!

carving pumpkins

beautiful autumn!

we got wet again!