I used to think that all my friends who served missions were
SUPER lame when they said they couldn't remember everything that happened in
the past week and had short, boring emails. But now I am sitting here trying to
think of what all happened since my last email and I'm drawing a blank.......haha
Time in the mission is just super-sonic compared to "the real world"
:) But thankfully I have been keeping an awesome journal to help me remember
everything!
So last week was super hard. The MTC buzz finally died off
and I found myself in the midst of the difficulties and trials of the Lord's
work. I hate feeling unproductive and that's mainly what I felt like all
of last week. Since we don't have any investigators or referrals, we have
been visiting a lot of inactives and ward members. Most of the time no one is
even home during the day so I felt like we weren't even fulfilling our purpose
as we just drove around and left notes for people. From thursday to friday we
had MTE's (missionary training experience) so we had a trio with Sister
Twitchell. It was fun having both of my comp's with me but I still couldn't
shake off that feeling of being unproductive. But on Saturday we decided to
switch things up and not just wait for investigators to "fall" into
our hands. On Saturday our whole zone decided to do a zone wide fast and my
testimony of fasting has increased 10 fold! Fasting truly does bring about
miracles.
So Saturday morning our apartment complex had a Mother's Day
Brunch that we attended. We sat next to a Chinese family and also an Iranian
family. I chatted with the Chinese family for a little while but they were
super hard to understand so we started to talk to the Iranian family instead.
They just kept asking us all these questions and seriously invited
THEMSELVES to
church and then asked "How do we become members of your church?" It
was awesome!! We did a victory dance in our apartment as soon as we got back :)
Sadly they are in the Del Norte Ward sooo we don't even get to teach them. BUT
it was still proof that Heavenly Father is SOO mindful of us and that when we
submit ourselves to His will He will truly bless us!!
Then on Saturday afternoon we took one of our ward member's
dog on a walk to the dog park. I wish we could just have a dog with us ALL the
time! It was soooo much easier to talk to people and they were
less intimidated to talk to us since the puppy so was dang adorable.
We talked to this one man, Dan, for about 45 minutes and at first he was super
anti-mormon. He told us that "his Jesus and our Jesus are not the same
person" and that there was no possible way that he would believe in a
modern day prophet and the Book of Mormon. So we just listened to him and his
beliefs and stated things that we agreed with and even quoted from the Bible.
When he left he just thanked us for the wonderful conversation. Even though we
didn't get his contact information or anything, it was just
amazing to
watch his perspective of us change. Our purpose as missionaries is to
Invite
others to come unto Christ and by the end of the conversation we could
just see how much closer he came to Jesus Christ. So we just might have to
start a dog walking service in our ward. :)
Sunday it was SOO amazing to talk to my family on the
phone!! Even though it has only been 2 1/2 weeks since I had talked to them
last, it felt like it had been years since I've heard their voices. I am soo
grateful to have the family I do! I LOVE YOU ALL!! I forgot to tell everyone
this last week, but for those of you who are members and reading this blog:
GIVE REFERRALS TO THE MISSIONARIES!! Invite them to your home, accept their
invitation, follow through with it, and don't be afraid to share this Gospel
with everyone you talk to. As you continually strive to become more charitable
and express the pure love of Christ to those you know, you will not fail.
Charity
never faileth because Christ never failed.
By now you are all probably wondering about the 2 Jewish
men. So Sister Sorensen and I decided that we would go to the Lake Poway Park
and chalk the Plan of Salvation on the sidewalk. We were sitting under the pavilion contemplating whether the Plan of Salvation would be
considered "
graffit" or not when these 2 older Jewish men
started talking to us from the parking lot. From what I could hear it sounded
like they were trying to bet us $400 about something. Sister Sorensen must have
heard something else cuz she went up and started talking to them. Naturally I
was a little freaked out. But next thing I know they are teaching us how to
play backgammon under the pavilion. Their names are Jacob and Dr. Siad (LOST!!
ahhh!) They were probably the funniest people we've met so far and kept joking
about how we were cheating since we had God on our side. So because we have God
on our side we actually kicked their trash and beat them at their own game.
[Side note: earlier that morning I thought about taking these 2 BOM's out of my
purse cuz it was getting super heavy, but decided to keep them in there just in
case :)] So after we won I reached into my bag and pulled out those 2 BOM's and
said "Since we won, we will give you both a special book to make you feel
better" and
I PLACED MY FIRST BOOK OF MORMONS ON MY MISSION! They
took them and Jacob opened up to a random page and the first passage he read
just happened to mention Moses and they just looked at us like we had given
them a monkey or something. We then explained a little bit better and we made
plans to meet with them again on Thursday!!
This past week I have truly come to notice the Lord's hand
in my life. I've learned how important it is to truly give my
everything to
this work and to continually strive to becoming more Christ-like. In my
personal studies one morning I was reading in 1 Nephi 8 about the tree of life
vision. In verse 30 it says, "They came and caught hold of the end of the
rod of iron: and they did press their way forward, continually holding fast to
the rod of iron, until they came forth and
fell down and
partook of the fruit of the tree" When I get home from my mission I want
to be so exhausted from giving everything I possibly have to this work, so that
when I finally reach the end, I can fall down and partake of the fruit. At the
end of this life I want to be able to fall down at my Savior's feet and partake
of the eternal fruits of celestial life.
I love being a representative of Jesus Christ with all my
heart. I know that Heavenly Father knows each and every one of us personally
and He truly blesses us when we strengthen our faith and press forward in
obedience. I have learned so much about how important our free agency is and
when we obey God's commandments and laws, we receive even
more freedom! I
am so grateful for the knowledge that I have of the Restoration of Jesus
Christ's Gospel and my testimony grows exponentially every single day. I know
that "inviting others to come unto Christ" doesn't just mean
baptizing and teaching people. It means doing what Christ would have me do to
bless someone's life and plant that seed into their hearts. This is truly the
happiest I have ever been. The Church is True!!
Love,
Sister Morgan
On Saturday our Ward had a coed softball activity against
some other wards in the Stake so we decided to go to that and use it as an
opportunity to support our ward and help them to become more missionary minded!
So our plan of attack was brilliant. Sister Sorensen played softball and talked
with all of the adults while I sat on the sidewalk and chalked with the little
kids. Primary kids seriously are the absolute BEST! I just had an absolute
"BLAST-A"! I wrote "Sister Morgan" and "mormon.org" and the kids took it to a whole
new level! They started writing their names and then "I'm a Mormon"
and "Mormon's Rock" and "I'm Proud to be a Mormon" and
"Family can be together forever" and "I'm a Child of God!"
It was just sooooo much fun! And we were able to get the spirit of missionary
work planted in these awesome little kids! It was definitely worth it.
Speaking of having a "blast-a", one of the families in our ward
has 2 chinese foreign exchange students and they just remind me SOO much of my
students!! We had dinner with them on tuesday and I got to practice my horrible
chinese on them and they even let me take a picture with them >_<
It was so awesome to chat with them and talk in my slowww teaching voice
haha
This week we really got the ball rolling for the 40 Day
Fast. I AM SOOO EXCITED FOR IT!! There are going to be so many miracles that
result from it and it will truly bless this Ward and our missionary efforts!
Everyone here goes above and beyond with things so it just amazes me to see how
intricate this Fast is becoming. We are going to have 3 families fasting per day
and when they finish their fast they will call the families for the next day to
pass it off. That way we can build more unity within the Ward. Then for each
day of the Fast we will have a scripture with a passage out of Preach My Gospel
that corresponds with it. Sister Sorensen and I spent 5 hours today working on
that and it is seriously going to be soo powerful! And it is going to be a
great way to help members study and apply PMG more. We took the new Come Unto
Christ youth curriculum and applied it to the fast and they will make pamphlets
out of it! All of the other missionaries are already asking for copies of it!
haha But on Sunday we start the Kick-off and the Ward Mission Leader, Ward
Missionaries, and us are going to be teaching all of the combined classes for
3rd hour which is going to be a great way to kick it off. Then we will start it
the Sunday after that so families can have enough time to prepare for it! It
just amazes me to see how just one simple little thought can turn into such an
inspirational and powerful movement. And I know that it wasn't just my own
thought. It was a prompting for the Holy Ghost and all the
credit goes to Heavenly Father! He truly is so mindful of each of us and
blesses us when we continue to be obedient and submit our will to His. Every
day Sister Sorensen and I see the Lord's hand in our work and all we can do is
give praises and say "THE CHURCH IS TRUE!"
