His Hands

Hey Everyone!!! So life in the Imperial Valley is FINALLY starting to cool off! Yesterday it was only 80 when we went outside to exercise it was AMAZING. I almost thought about grabbing my sweatshirt. But during the day it only gets to about 101 so that is exciting!

So besides the weather, this past week has been pretty rough. On Wednesday we found out that our one investigator who had been lying to us had been assaulted over the weekend and Mexicali and left for dead. Once someone found him and after he got back over the border he was flown to Palm Springs ICU and had to have some major reconstructive surgery on his shattered jaw and cheek bone. They honestly didn't think he was going to make it. But on Thursday our whole Zone did a Zone Fast for him and I know that the windows of heaven were poured upon Daniel! He has had a miraculous recovery and on Monday he was able to come back home. He is still in pretty bad shape; he has 2 huge black eyes, his eye balls are completely red, face swollen, staples on his head, and stitches on his forehead and eyebrow. Someone took a baseball bat to him......so you can definitely imagine what that would look like. So if everyone could keep him in your prayers we would really appreciate it.

Pray for my companion and I as well......it has been a pretty emotionally exhausting week! On top of everything with Daniel, we found out one of the Elders in our District was going home on Monday, my companion got a ticket for not fully stopping at a stop sign by a Highway Patrolmen in the middle of the city and I have to pay for half of the ticket, we didn't get much sleep since we were stressed out, and I seriously had the biggest mental block in preparation for my talk on Sunday, and I'm starting to get sick!

But even though things have been rough, my faith has never been stronger. I have spent a lot of time praying to Heavenly Father and have received so much comfort and strength from Him. It was such a humbling experience; for my talk on Sunday I literally had the hardest time preparing for it! I had no idea what to talk about and was loosing even more sleep about it. On Saturday night I was just tossing and turning the whole night and at 2 AM I finally decided to get up and try to write my talk. The main inspiration that I received was to read the lyrics to this song called "His Hands" by Kenneth Cope. So for my talk I was the concluding speaker, but only had 10 mins to talk. I stood up and began to talk and it was like my thoughts were instantly clear. I read the lyrics to the song for everyone and was in tears the whole time. I testified about being Disciples of Christ and how important it is for us to extend our hands out to those who are lost or struggling and helping them to come closer to our Savior Jesus Christ. It was super powerful and the Spirit was so strong in that room!

I am truly SO grateful for my Redeemer Jesus Christ and the sacrifices He made for me so that I may be able to receive strength and comfort everyday. So here are the lyrics to the song:

"His Hands, tools of creation, stronger than nations, power without end. And yet through them we find our truest friend.

His Hands, sermons of kindness, healing men's blindness, halting years of pain, children waiting to be held again.

His hands would serve His whole life through, showing man what hands might do. Giving, ever giving endlessly. Each day was filled with selfessness and I'll not rest till I make of my hands what they could be. Till these hands become like those from Galilee.

His hands, warming a beggar, lifting a leper, calling back the dead, breaking bread, five thousand fed.

His hands, hushing contention, pointing to heaven, ever free of sin, then bidding man to follow him.

His hands, clasp in agony, as He lay pleading, bleeding in the garden, while just moments away other hands betray Him out of greed, shameful greed.

And then His hands are trembling, straining to carry, the beam that they'd be nailed to, as he stumbles through the streets, heading for the hill on which He would die.

They take His hands, His mighty hands, those gentle hands, and then they pierce them. they pierce them, He lets them, because of love.

From birth to death was selflessness, and clearly now I see Him with His hands calling to me, and though I'm not yet as I would be, He has shown me how I could be, I will make my hands like those from Galilee."

I love you all, thank you for all of your support and love! xoxoxoxo

Sister Morgan

That We Might "Not...Shrink"

The M&M Sisters have the greatest adventures!

Hey everyone! It has been another great week for Sister Morgan out here in the Valley! Shout out to everyone starting school this week at BYU-Idaho! Especially my seesta Katie Kaaaaaang! Everyone better keep an eye out for my little short stack! :) So funny story about BYU-Idaho that happened this week. One of our investigators is dating a girl who just went back up to Idaho for school. We were texting him and jokingly started talking about doing a road trip to Idaho to go see her. So then he said, "If Nephi got to America on a boat we can get to Idaho in a car with Tiwi!"  (Tiwi is that little machine in our car that is a GPS so we don't leave our mission boundaries and monitors us so we don't speed or not wear seat-belts, etc) SOOOO FUNNY! We just about died! I don't know why all of our funniest stories with investigators have been based off of Nephi building a boat to sail to America......but i just love them all!

Only "One Way" to Heaven!

This week though was actually pretty good. We had some really awesome Member Present Lessons and I just love that our members are becoming more missionary-minded! Sister Munns and I both have to talk in Church next week about Missionary Work so we are pretty excited for that! But this week we also found out that one of our investigators hasn't been keeping his commitments and has been lying to us about a lot of things.............so that was a HUGE bummer. It made us super sad, but it also brought a lot of peace to my heart because I finally understood why I kept having an uneasy feeling when we would pray to know what we could do to help him prepare for baptism. So it sucks to see the downside about missionary work, but I know that this is the Lord's work and that we just need to be conduits for His Spirit to help His children.

Celebrating Mexican Independence Day

We had a super awesome lesson though with this guy Frank about Faith that totally strengthened my own faith in my Savior, Jesus Christ. I know that no matter what, I can always put my faith and trust into my Redeemer because He has felt everything that I have felt and knows how to succor His people. On Sunday one of the Counselors in our Mission Presidency, President Morgan [No direct relation that we know of yet, but I claim him as family (: ] gave the best talk EVER in our Ward's Sacrament Meeting. He read from Alma 36:3 that says, "Therefore, I beseech of thee that thou wilt hear my words and learn from me; for I do know that whosoever shall put their trust in God shall be supported in their trials, and their troubles, and their afflictions, and shall be lifted up at the last day" And I just absolutely LOVE that scripture! He talked about how there is absolutely nothing in this world that doesn't fall under trials, troubles, and afflictions, and that no matter what we are experiencing, as long as we put our faith and trust in the Lord, He will support us!
 
I can testify to that and know it is true because I have experienced it in my life on dozens of occasions! I know that Jesus Christ is the Son of God who sacrificed Himself so that we may be able to live with our Heavenly Father and families for eternity. I know that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the one and only true church of Christ that has been restored in these latter days. I know that if any of you put your trust and faith into Jesus Christ, that you WILL be supported in your trials, troubles, and afflictions. Christ cannot take those burdens completely away, but He can help us to endure them and give us the strength to continue to push forward and learn from the experience. One of my favorite talks EVER is called, "That We Might 'Not...Shrink'" by Elder Bednar. If you get a moment, PLEASE read this talk. I hope that it can bring as much comfort and peace to your hearts as it has to mine! http://www.lds.org/broadcasts/article/ces-devotionals/2013/01/that-we-might-not-shrink-d-c-19-18?lang=eng

I love you all!!!!! xoxoxoxo
Sister Morgan

Everyday Life in the Valley

El Centro Sunsets

Made Awesome Cupcakes for RC Andrew's Birthday!

Candy Comma

In West Philadelphia Born and Raised....

Hey Everyone!! Hope all is well at home! Things are going super well here in El Centro. Transfers were last week and both Sister Munns and I are staying out here in the Valley for another 6 weeks! Woohooo!

We had Crystal's baptism on Saturday and it was so amazing! Its crazy how things can go completely wrong, but somehow working out for the best. We were kind of scrambled getting things ready for the baptism and were super worried that not a lot of people were going to come. But at about 5 mins till, a TON of people showed up. The support was amazing! So normally for our intermediate presentation that we do as the person who was baptized is getting dressed, we show a mormon message and then bear our testimonies at the end of it. But for some reason, the DVD player just decided to NOT work for us. So we went to Plan B and just bore our testimonies about the Book of Mormon and the journey we have had with Crystal. It's crazy how the Spirit works and afterwards everyone kept telling us that we should always just stick with Plan B because it was so much more powerful.

At the end of the service we had Crystal bear her testimony and it was one of the strongest testimonies I've ever heard! It has been such an honor and blessing to have been apart of her journey and I can't WAIT to see what great things the future holds for her. On Sunday she received the Holy Ghost and Richard was sustained to receive the Priesthood, so that was SO cool to see how much the Gospel can bless a family! AHHHHHHH I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY!

Well besides that our week was still pretty good. We don't really have any progressing investigators right now since we have baptized them all, so this will be a great opportunity for us to start finding some new people to teach!

Well some funny things that happened this week:

• Some of the Elders tried to rap the Fresh Prince of Bell-Air song and totally butched it, I was SO upset. I love Will Smith. So I totally showed them up and rapped the whole thing for them, it was pretty epic! Everyone was totally shocked I know it all haha But now that song has been stuck in my head all week......
• We have been having some CrAzY weather here lately and it has been raining BUCKETS every other day or so now! And so on Saturday night we had an appointment that we decided to walk to since it was only sprinkling a little bit and we had the Elders with us. So right when we get to the door the clouds decide to just POUR on us and the wind decided to change directions! We had this little tiny umbrella that we tried to use to block the rain, but our heads and skirts just got completely soaked and the poor Elders had nothing to hide under. I was pounding on the door but no one answered until right when we decided to leave. We let the Elders go home, but we had to stay and teach a whole lesson soaking wet.....haha

Well I hope everyone has an awesome week and just know that I am LOVING being in the service of my God and serving the people here in El Centro! THE CHURCH IS TRUE and JESUS LOVES YOU!




xoxoxo Sister Morgan