Noche de Luz, Noche de Paz

Helllooooooo Everyone! MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!! I hope that you all have a wonderful day with your family and friends and that you continue to remember our Savior, Jesus Christ, during this special season!

This past week was actually SUPER good! We got our 2 investigators, Jeremy (9yrs) and Jared (11 yrs) with a BAPTISMAL DATE!!! WOOOHOOOOO! I am seriously so excited for these kids! They are just soaking up the Gospel and I am loving every single moment of teaching them. They are going to make fantastic Missionaries in the future! They can get a little rambunctious at times.......but every time we check for understanding they can teach us back everything and have even come up with their own analogies for Gospel principles! They seriously just amaze me!

Some of my favorite quotes from them this week have been:

"What's Adultery?"-Jared

"Ohhhh I know what that is! Its what Adult's try to do!"-Jeremy    HAHAHAHAHAHA

"We go to 2 different churches.........the Church of Jesus Christ............and Church's Chicken!!"-Jeremy

I love these kids!

They have seriously changed my whole outlook on teaching this Gospel and I am SO grateful for that! They have reminded me about what things are truly important and how simple this Gospel truly is. I can't wait until January 4th when I can see this young men enter into the waters of baptism and begin this wonderful new journey with their family!


District Caroling!

This past week our District decided to go out Christmas Caroling in our 2 wards and we just had a "Blast-aaaa!!!" I seriously love our Elders......they may be a little tone deaf but it was still so fun to spread Christmas cheer by singing loud for allllll to hear. You all will be so proud of me, I even sang "Silent Night" in SPANISH! Its the most Spanish I have ever spoken and I can't think of a better song to remind others about the life of Jesus Christ.

One of the Mormon Messages that has really hit me this year is called "The Reason Behind Christmas". Its kind of a little cheesy, but it has a really powerful point to it! What will YOU give to Christ this upcoming year?

http://www.mormonchannel.org/video/mormon-messages?v=2874125972001&cide=HPFR122013285

I hope that all of you are able to reflect on the life of Jesus Christ and remember all of the many blessings that you have because of Him. I want you all to know that I love my Savior and I am so humbled and honored to be a Representative of Him at this Christmas Season and to wear His name over my heart everyday! I love being a Missionary and I can't imagine being anywhere else right now! For those that I won't get to talk on the phone with tomorrow, I love you and I am so grateful for all of your support!! Merry Christmas!

xoxoxo Sister Morgan

Just be the best missionary you can possibly be and don't forget to smile!

Hey Everyone! Christmas is quickly coming upon us! I'M SO EXCITED! I can't wait to talk w/ my family! But I'm also kind of really dreading this time of year. Everyone is gone, or spending time with their families, and some of my favorite people in the WORLD are leaving the Valley tomorrow :/

Christmas Time in the San Diego Mission Office!

Elder and Sister Scott are the Senior Missionary Couple that have been out here for the past 23 months practically living in the Family History Center. They have been teaching Institute for the YSA and for the Adults and are one of the main reasons why my 2nd Baptism, Crystal, is SUCH a solid member of the church now! It was at adult institute that she received the revelation to be baptized and that was hugely related to the special spirit that Elder and Sister Scott have and teach with. The Scott's have been like our family out here and have seriously been such a huge inspiration for me to become a better missionary. They are such Christ-like examples of charity and dedicated service! Every time we leave the FHC I always ask if there is anything that we can do for them and Elder Scott always responds with, "Just be the best missionary you can possibly be and don't forget to smile!". That phrase will be implanted in my mind forever just like my Dad's famous line, "Have I told you lately that I love you?" I am grateful that I was so blessed to meet the Scott's and to have learned so many things from their wonderful examples!

This past week was the busiest week we have had in a long time though! We taught some suuuper good lessons and even added a couple more investigators which was exactly what we needed! We had another lesson with the Cole family in Calexico and those boys are SO STINKIN SMART! We taught the Restoration by using these cups w/ pictures on them to show how Christ established His church and I swear, by the end of the lesson the boys could teach us the whole lesson on their own!  And these kids are seriously the funniest little boys I have met since my little cousin Cameren Farr. The youngest one, Jeremy who is 9, reminds me SOOO much of Cameren it almost scares me!

We taught them how to pray and as we were bearing our testimonies to them we mentioned that we know that God loves them very much. Then Jeremy raised his hand and said, "Did you pray to know that God loves me?" AHHHHHHHHHHHHkjsdhfklsjdhdkfsldkhfsdlksdhfsdlkhsd CUTEST THING EVER! I could instantly feel God's love for that child and it seriously is the best feeling ever! In Jeremy's closing prayer he said, "Thank you God for sending your daughters to come and teach us more about You". I KNOW that each of us are sons and daughters of GOD! Once we truly understand that relationship, then living the Gospel comes naturally! I am grateful that I was able to learn that lesson from an incredible child of God and that he was able to teach me about how I can feel God's love for all of His children!

I invite you all, especially during this Christmas season, to pray to feel God's love for all of His children. Even those that you might not particularly want to love right now. But I promise that if you do that, then you will be able to enjoy this holiday season more fully!

I love you all!!

xoxo Sister Morgan

When Hell Freezes Over

Hey everyone!!! I hope you all have been enjoying this wonderful Holiday Season! This week "Hell Centro" finally caught on that it is supposed to be cold in December! And let me tell you, it has been real cold for us pathetic Californians. The past week it has been in the 50's to low 60's and the wind has been suuuuper killer! And this morning when we went outside for our District "walk around the block" with the Elders for "exercises" it was 37 degrees out!!! Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!! But we can definitely blame it on the humidity.....that makes it feel way worse than it actually is haha

But besides the cold weather we had a pretty good week! It was slow and my companion was sick which really took a toll on how much we were able to do. But thanks to beautiful inventions like Day-Quil and sleep, she is feeling much better and we were still able to accomplish a lot!

Last Tuesday after P-day ended and before we had Institute w/ the YSA we decided to go and contact some names off of the ward list. We came to this one house and the guy was home alone so we had to just talk on his door step for a little while. He has had Bronchitis for the past week and was just feeling pretty down on himself. We asked him why they hadn't been to church in a long time and he said, "Well, we just don't really know anyone any more". So we just responded and said, "Well lets change that! Come to the Ward Christmas Party next week!" and then we shared the scripture Helaman 5:12 w/ him that talks all about building your foundation on Christ so that when the storms of life come beating upon you, you will receive strength from the Rock of your Redeemer.

As I was bearing my testimony to him about that, we could see some tears rolling down his cheeks. It was a tender moment for me and a reminder of why I am here sharing my testimony with all those that I can! But I also learned another important lesson-never let ANYONE be forgotten! If there is someone that you haven't seen in church for awhile, go find them and brighten their spirits with the Pure Love of Christ during this Christmas season. My super awesome cousin, Elder Farr, recited in his email on of my favorite quotes from President Thomas S. Monson, "To catch the real meaning of the spirit of Christmas, we need only drop the last syllable and it becomes the spirit of CHRIST" So go and spread the spirit of Christ with all of those that you can! And I can PROMISE that every effort will not be wasted, because the pure love of Christ NEVER fails.

I love you all and I hope that you can continue to enjoy this beautiful time of the year and can find some way to spread the true meaning of Christmas! Here is my gift of the week to help you feel the love of Christ through music :)

https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2012-00-0120-o-come-emmanuel-christmas-version?category=topics/christmas

Love,

 

xoxo Sister Morgan

"Would you like a Thanksgiving-Day Roll?"

It's finally "Fall" time in California! ;)

Hey everyone!! I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving! Life here in the Valley has been prettttyyyyyyy slow this past week.......It seems like when there is a chance to leave the Valley everyone takes that opportunity and leaves us in the dust :/

But HEY! It's totally fine, you know why? Because the Lord's work never stops! That's right. Even when it seems like everyone and their mom's, and their dog's, and their cat's, and their dumb annoying little chihuahua's leave, the Lord is just making it easier for us to find those lost and lonely souls who are in need of hearing our message.

In my Dad's email to me last week he told me this really touching story about a Thanksgiving on his mission that really hit me to the core. He invited me to go and find those who are lost and lonely during this Holiday Season and help them to feel the pure love of Christ. So the day before Thanksgiving we went all over town trying to find some service opportunities that we could do in the community but all of them fell through. My Dad's email really inspired me and motivated me to go and find those people, but once Thanksgiving came I really had no idea how we were going to do that!!



Freshly baked Thanksgiving Day Rolls!

So on Thanksgiving Day we went to our old Bishop's house and learned how to make some very delicious homemade rolls (that's right everyone, I'm learning how to COOK! Woohoo!) w/ his wife. We spent most of the morning making them and had about 45 mins free before our next appointment. So w/ 2 dozen, freshly baked, STRAIGHT out of the oven dinner rolls, we decided to go to Bucklin Park and hand out "Thanksgiving Rolls" to everyone we saw. At first I felt a little weird just handing out rolls to people....but then this one lady practically waved us down from her car in the parking lot. At first I totally thought she was a member because she looked like she recognized us and even asked us if we had a family to go and eat with. Of course I was thinking about the Suamataia Family that we were about to go eat with and not my actual family (sorry fam-bam haha)

Then all of a sudden this lady just got tears in her eyes and let out a little whimper as she whispered, "I don't have a family anymore...I don't have a family anymore" (HEART=BROKEN) She had just been sitting in her car all day watching families at the park and listening to Christian music on the radio. At first I was speechless, I had no idea what to say to this lady. But then I realized (more like the Spirit taught me) that what I would give to this lady would be so much more powerful than my words of condolence. I instantly pulled out a Book of Mormon and testified to her that if she would read it she would NEVER feel alone and would understand more about God's purpose for her in this life.

It wasn't until that moment that I realized how precious and close to my heart the Book of Mormon is. It isn't just a bunch of boring scripture, or a historical record of the ancient Native Americans. But it is evidence that God still speaks to us today and has given the fullness of His Gospel so that we can learn more about our Savior Jesus Christ. Who, as we know, is the greatest source of peace in this life.

I am grateful for the word's of wisdom my Father gave to me. He inspired me to experience one of the most humbling experience's I have had on my mission so far. Even though it was something as simple as handing out dinner rolls and a free Book of Mormon, I know without a shadow of a doubt, that we helped bring the light of Christ into someone's life. And in that one moment, I learned so much about myself and what things I truly am grateful for that I will NEVER forget in my life.

I love you all! xoxoxo

Sister Morgan

Welcome December!