"I'm thankful for toys, churches, my family, and temple blessings!"

Welcome to Sunsets in the Imperial Valley!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!!! Wow, I can't believe it is already this time of year! As I reflect back on this past year there are SO many things that I am thankful for, it literally would take days for me to list them all out! So because of time constraints I will just list off somethings that I am thankful for :) 

1. I am thankful that I have the opportunity to spend ANOTHER 6 weeks out here in the Valley with Sister Blair! I am thankful for all of the amazing people I have met that have truly changed my life and have taught me so much about the love that Jesus Christ has for all of His children. 
2. I am thankful for my loving Heavenly Father who answers prayers and is so mindful of us! Sister Blair and I had a super amazing experience w/ prayer this past week! We went to go contact a name off of the Ward List that we didn't know during the middle of this crazy rain storm we had on Friday. The GPS takes us to this gated complex and we had no idea how we were going to get in. So we say a prayer in the car that God will guide us to this family and we get out and see this man walking into the complex as well. He looked back and saw 2 white girls running towards him in hooded trench coats, knee length skirts, and soaking wet flats......the light of Christ within this man must of had a moment of compassion because he kindly held the gate open for us. Once we got inside the complex we wandered around for a minute right up to the building that this family supposedly lived in. We stood there for a minute and stared at the building because we realized that we didn't even have the apt number for this family! So in the pouring rain we huddled next to each other and bowed our heads in humble prayer to ask the Lord to guide us to this family's apartment. We decided to go to the other side of the building and knock on one of the doors that we saw had a car parked in its assigned spot. We knock on the door, a woman answers the door, we ask if she is the family we are looking for, and she says YES!! We were like "for real?!?" haha she invited us in for awhile, we had a super amazing lesson, and we even got a return appointment to have a Family Home Evening w/ them! Whats even better.....the Mom is the only member of the family! Woooohoooooo! 
3. I am so thankful to be serving my God and to be sharing this Gospel and my Testimony of its truthfulness with everyone that I can! I am thankful for the joy that I have felt seeing this Gospel take root in people's lives and for open hearts that have received it.
4. I am thankful for my wonderful family and for the examples that they are to me! I am thankful for their continuous support and prayers in my behalf. I am thankful for the relationship that I have with each of them and for the love I have for them as well. 
5. I am thankful for all of my extended family, friends, and ward members and the support they give me as well! 
6. Last but not least, I am thankful for the relationship that I have with my Heavenly Father and Savior Jesus Christ. If it wasn't for that relationship, I would not be here today! I am thankful for all of the many blessings They have given me-especially this Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ! I am thankful for the guidance and direction that it gives me in my life and the knowledge that I have of the Divine Plan of Happiness. 

The Celestial District is still together!

I love you all and I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving with all of your loved ones! 

http://www.lds.org/pages/mormon-messages?lang=eng#in-the-spirit-of-thanksgiving

xoxo Sister Morgan

District Walk in the Rain

Have You Ever Wondered....

Hey Everyone!!! It has been another great week in the work of the Lord! We saw a lot of miracles and tender mercies this week and I seriously just feel like I have been on cloud 9! AND today is my companion's 21st Birthday! HAPPY BIRTHDAY SIS BLAIR! Not too many people can say they celebrated their 21st birthday by serving the Lord....so we are definitely enjoying this day :) OH and real quick-CONGRATS TO JESSICA AND JASE FOR CREATING ONE BEAUTIFUL BABY! SOO happy for you guys!

So we had a SUPER awesome day @ church this past Sunday! It was another super great Missionary Farewell and it brought up so many different emotions for me! It was exactly 7 months ago on Sunday that I gave my last farewell talk and said goodbye to my family and friends as well. It is amazing to see how much has happened during those 7 months and to see myself sitting in the pews with a name-tag on instead of standing at the pulpit.....crying. haha

But we FINALLY got one of our less-actives that we have been working with forever to church !!! WOOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOO! AND she even walked to church which was a HUGE deal for her. You could just see how happy she felt after taking the Sacrament for the first time in years. It was amazing!


Sister Blair chalking it out!

On Saturday we just felt prompted to go to this huge park by our Church-Bucklin Park- and go chalk out the Plan of Salvation! IT WAS SUPER COOL. Not going to lie, we did a boss job of drawing it out. We wrote really big in the middle of the sidewalk "Have you ever wondered...." and then under every step of the Plan of Salvation we put one of the questions of the soul, (i.e Where did we come from? What is my purpose in life? What happens after this life? etc) We didn't want to put our phone # down just cuz Bucklin Park can be a wee bit sketch.....so we just wrote out "Check out Mormon.org" EVERYWHERE! So who knows. Maybe one of these days we will get like 9 mormon.org referrals from it :)



Part of our Drawing!

After that we felt prompted to drive down to Calexico but we couldn't contact any of the people that we normally do. So we decided to go visit some people on the ward list and we had a huge miracle happen! We went to go visit this guy Joe but we found out that he doesn't live there anymore. BUT his Sister does and she is a suuuper less-active member that hasn't been to church since 2002 and wasn't even on our ward list! We talked to her for awhile and she really wants us to come back and start teaching her AND her non-member sons who are 11&9 yrs old! YAYYYY I'm super excited to finally teach some kids w/ parental support! And young boys who can be potential missionaries in the future! After visiting with her we were just like little kids on Christmas haha

It is just absolutely amazing to be apart of the LORD's work and to see His children developing and strengthening relationships with Him. I love hearing stories from back home of my family and friends being super amazing Member-Missionaries and I just KNOW that the Work of Salvation is truly hastening! I hope that you all continue to feel of God's love especially during this time of Thanksgiving, and will continue to share that love with all of those around you!

I love you all!
xoxo Sister Morgan

How Sister Missionaries Weekly Plan

Hope is like the Sun

Hey Everyone!! Hope you are all enjoying the cooler weather and getting ready for the holidays! Its amazing how fast time is flying and that I am almost at my 7 Month mark! Ahhhhhh!!!!!!!!

Well this week was pretty good! It was a little slow at times but we were able to do a lot of service which was nice! We washed some windows, vacuumed some rooms, packed up some dishware and office supplies, and even steam cleaned some carpet! It was fun though, I love being able to do service!

But besides that we had some pretty great lessons! We got a call from this one member who is a little on the wacky side and she had these referrals for us. We asked her about them and apparently she followed some humming birds to these peoples doors and just knocked on them and introduced herself to them! Soooooo props to this lady for having the guts to go knock on a random persons door! But we went and contacted one of her referrals and it was super awesome! This guy is really receptive and we have a return appointment with him! So lets keep our fingers crossed that this one goes somewhere!

On Thursday we went to go see this one Less-Active lady in Calexico and at first when we got there she was not really wanting any company. She had had a really rough week and was feeling super low. So we were just talking on her doorstep and we kept hearing this kitten crying in one of her neighbors yards. She is a huge animal lover so we went to go find it with her but sadly it ran away from us :( haha But after that she just invited us into her house and showed us her huge vintage jewelry collection for like 2 hrs and even let us keep a couple of pieces! It was awesome! But the best part was after we shared a message with her and prayed, she turned to us and said, "Thank you so much for coming by today! I was feeling really down but now I feel 100% better!" I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY! It just brings tears to my eyes knowing that I was able to be a bright light in someone's day. That is the absolute best feeling in the WORLD and there is nothing that could ever replace that.

I am so grateful for this Gospel and how IT is a bright light in my life everyday! The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the greatest source of hope in this world and I am so eternally grateful to have that perspective! Our Savior Jesus Christ is the greatest source of light and I am so humbled to be a Representative of Him and to share that light with others.

Here is a quote from one of my all time favorite talks, Hope an Anchor of the Soul by James E Faust:  Samuel Smiles wrote: “‘Hope is like the sun, which, as we journey towards it, casts the shadow of our burden behind us.’ … Hope sweetens the memory of experiences well loved. It tempers our troubles to our growth and our strength. It befriends us in dark hours, excites us in bright ones. It lends promise to the future and purpose to the past. It turns discouragement to determination" http://www.lds.org/ensign/1999/11/hope-an-anchor-of-the-soul

And just replace the word "Hope" with "Jesus Christ" and "it" with "Him"    :)

Love,

xoxo Sister Morgan

Playing Ultimate Frisbee with a Pill Ball!

Celestial Valley Zone Sports!

"See Jesus Moments"

Hey everyone!!! Hope you all had a great Halloween!! It was a pretty slow week for us here in El Centro. For Halloween we had to come in early at 7, so we got to clean out our area book and get organized a little bit and then read in D&C 84! It was super fun though, we just pounded down some candy and had a fun time.

I don't know why this week it has been super hard for us to find some people at home, but when we did, we had some awesome lessons! Yesterday we went to go see this investigator, William, and had the best lesson EVER with him! He's 85, his wife was a member but passed away last year and he has just been super depressed since then. We have been meeting with him every now and then because he just keeps talking about how he doesn't know how to open his heart and have faith. So yesterday we read out of Alma 32 with him and had a really great discussion with him! And at the very end we FINALLY got him to say his very first verbal prayer!!!!! WOOOOHOOOO!!! It was AMAZING! It is so cool to see someone humbly acknowledge their Father in Heaven no matter what age they are. Watching him pray was definitely the highlight of my week and one of the coolest experiences I've had on my mission so far. I have such a strong testimony about prayer and how vitally important it is that we communicate with our Father! "Prayer is an appointed means for obtaining the highest of all blessings!"-Bible Dictionary

We also had a really great lesson with one of our LA's. We met at her house and both of her parents were there. She has been a member for 3 years now and her parents were super against her being baptized. But when we had our lesson her mom still stayed in the room and even asked us some questions and participated in the lesson! And then randomly in the middle of the lesson she turned to her mom and said, "Mom, will you come to church with me on Sunday" and her mom said YES! TOO AWESOME! In our District's standards, that was a "See Jesus Moment" :)

Well, sorry for the short email this week. But we are having a Zone party at one of the Bishops house and are a little limited on time. Just know that I am absolutely loving being a part of this work and seeing the Gospel take root in people's lives! THE CHURCH IS SO TRUE!

I love you all and am sooo appreciative of all your prayers in my behalf!

xoxo Sister Morgan