The Rapture

Moses, Jessie, Elena, and David lookin' mighty spiffy!

Hey everyone!

Spring break has officially arrived here in Chula, which means it is the most "exciting" time for missionary work!! Everyone has officially disappeared! I swear, sometimes it feels like the Rapture is already happening and everyone besides us has gone back up to Jesus. But it's okay, that just means there are still a few lost souls hanging around out here that need to be saved in the last minute! ;)

But this week we have seen some awesome miracles! On Wednesday we had an amazing Restoration lesson with our investigator Erin. She told us about an experience she had recently where she truly felt the Holy Spirit and was in tears describing the feeling to us. Thankfully the Spirit is the absolute BEST and prompted us to ask some very inspired questions. After describing the Holy Ghost to her we asked her,

"What would it mean to you if you could have that feeling and the Spirit with you all the time?"
Erin: "Everything!"
Us: "What would you be willing to do so you could always have that feeling?"
Erin: (after a long pause) "Anything!"

:) After that we committed Erin to follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized by someone holding the Priesthood Authority of God and she said YES! The Spirit was SO powerful in that moment and I just had to sit there for a second and bask in the joy that comes from helping others to enter into the waters of baptism! Sadly though, we are going to have to pass Erin off to some of the Elders since she has moved outside of our Ward Boundaries :/ But it's okay! At least I got to participate in the beginning stages of Erin's journey and I can't wait to see how much she continues to grow in the Gospel!

Besides that, everything is still falling into place for the Ismerio's baptism this upcomming Friday and I seriously feel like a little kid at Christmas time right now! One of our ward members took them shopping this past week and bought them all new church clothes, it was one of the most Christ-like things I have ever seen on my mission. On Sunday, not gunna lie, I got a little teary eyed as I watched all of the Ismerio's walk into Chruch right on time with all of their new church clothes on and the biggest smiles on their faces. I'm seriously becoming the biggest sap these days, but it was the most precious thing I have ever seen! I can't WAIT until Friday :)

But before I close up today, I just wanted to share with everyone a few verses that I read out of the Bible this week that truly touched my heart.

"35 Who shall separate us from the ^alove of Christ? shall ^btribulation, or distress, or ^cpersecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
36 As it is written, For thy sake we are ^akilled all the day long; we are accounted as ^bsheep for the slaughter.
37 Nay, in all these things we are ^amore than ^bconquerors through him that loved us.
38 For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,
39 Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to ^aseparate us from the ^blove of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

I know that no matter WHAT we are going through, we can always feel the love of our Savior, Jesus Christ. The only thing that can seperate us from His love is ourselves if we don't turn to Him and rely on His strength. So I can promise you all, that if you turn to the Lord despite how busy or chaiotic or difficult things may be, that you WILL feel His love.

xoxo Sister Morgan

"I will go, I will DO!"

The Ismerio Family in front of the San Diego Temple

Hey everyone!!!

This has been a week of MIRACLES! This past Friday right before our Ward Talent Show I received some of the best news I have EVER heard on my mission! Remember my Investigator family that I have seen SO many miracles with but also so many attacks from the Adversary? Well, after literally fighting for them the past 2 months, we received the news that they have received permission to be BAPTIZED in our Ward!!! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

I literally cried and did my "happy dance" I was SO excited! As soon as I heard the news it was like a huge weight was lifted off of my shoulders and I knew that I had done everything I could to do God's will to help this family enter into the waters of baptism. It was seriously one of the best feelings EVER! Their baptism is going to be on March 28th, so that means we have a lot of planning we have to do in the next 10 days in order for this baptism to go smoothly!

I have seriously had to fight sooooooo much for this family and I KNEW that by helping them to get a baptismal date that God would prepare a way for them to be baptized. AND HE HAS! I can't even describe how much this has built my faith and how much I have grown from this experience. This family is truly amazing and they are going to be blessed SO much from entering into a covenant with God, but they are also going to bless the lives of sooo many people that they come in contact with! The oldest son, Moses who is 12, is already wanting to prepare for a mission and I swear, the kid is already more knowledgable about the Book of Mormon than I ever was before my mission! It is so cool and I can't WAIT to see how much they continue to grow in this Gospel.

I am so grateful to be a tool in the Lord's hands to help Him in furthering His work! I am so humbled that I have been able to help 8 souls so far enter into the waters of baptism and I can't wait to see the many wonderful things that each of them will accomplish! The Lord truly does prepare a way for us to keep His commandments as long as we put our faith and trust in Him and are willing to be obedient!

I love you all and I am SO grateful that I have this opportunity to serve the Lord and help His precious children return to live with Him again. Have a great week!

xoxo Sister Morgan

We hit the MOTHER LODE!

Why the Ukulele is the Best Instrument EVER

Hey everyone!

Another great and warm week here in Chula! Spring is coming fast and we are already back into the 80's again. We have been trying to walk around more between our appointments which means 2 things: 1) my watch and shoe tan lines keep getting worse and 2) we continue to find random service opportunities and people to talk to!

This week as we were walking around we started to admire this lady's 1976 bright red VW Bug. As we said "Hi!" to her we saw that her and her daughter were trying to move it to help get it started. So we instantly threw down our bags and started pushing it and once it started we then watched her drive away as we were left in the dust. It was super fun to help her out! But afterwards we were like, "Man, we should have thrown a Mormon.org card into her car window before she left!" But that's okay. Hopefully when she see missionary's again she will remember the 2 girls in skirts that helped her push start her car!

Last tuesday Heavenly Father gave me a HUGE tender mercy. Well, at first it didn't start out as a tender mercy. Lately I have been playing my Ukulele a lot to practice for our Ward Talent show this upcomming week that I'm playing in with one of the youth in my ward. When I woke up last Monday, I looked at my uke and saw that my A string had broken! I was super bummed out because I had NO idea where a music store was around here and I really didn't want to have to stretch out a new string before the Talent Show. So after getting lost for awhile, Sister Mims and I finally found this random Music Store in Downtown Chula that some of the Elder's told us about. We were only in there long enough to buy some new strings and then we started to walk out. Then I had this random thought that we should go back in and see if they had Ukulele Tuners.

So we run back in and have to wait as the guy is helping this girl (that had walked in right when we were leaving) look at ukulele's. As we were waiting she saw that I had my Uke in my hand and she started asking me about a good brand that she should buy. So we started talking about ukulele's and I told her about my first uke that I bought when I was in China. At first in my mind I was like, "Why am I telling her about this?" and once I finished talking about it she was like, "No way! I was seriously just in China and almost bought a Uke while I was there! But I decided that I should probably wait till I got back into America to find a better quality one" After she said that I INSTANTLY knew that Heavenly Father had prompted me to go back for a Ukulele Tuner for a specific reason!

I mean seriously, what are the odds that I meet someone who instantly asked me about my 2 favorite things in the world to talk about!? The guy at the music store must have gotten a little annoyed with us because we ended up standing there and talking with her for an hour! She asked me all about China and my experience and she related so much to it because she had just been there and she had just spent a Study Abroad semester in Jerusalem! And then that of course led into Church related things and we practically taught her the whole first lesson about the Restoration of the Gospel. She attends a non-denominational church but had some super good questions where you could almost see the wheels in her head turning! We left her with a mormon.org card with the YSA Elder's # on it and I walked away with such a strong feeling in my heart that one day she will accept the Gospel. It was such a powerful experience for me to see how Heavenly Father has blessed me with very specific experiences and talents to relate directly to His children here in San Diego!

I KNOW that this is truly the Lord's work and that He has sent me here to San Diego for very specific reasons. I am so humbled to truly be an instrument in His hands and to find His lost sheep that are searching and prepared for this Gospel! It reminds me of a scripture in one of my favorite chapters of the Book of Mormon-Alma 26 vs 37

" Now my brethren, we see that God is ^amindful of every ^bpeople, whatsoever land they may be in; yea, he numbereth his people, and his bowels of mercy are over all the earth. Now this is my joy, and my great thanksgiving; yea, and I will give thanks unto my God forever. Amen."

I know that God personally knows and loves EACH of us individually! So continue to trust in Him and feel His love this week!

xoxo Sister Morgan

"Rain is a GOOOOD thang!"

Hey everyone!

This week in Chula has been SUPER wet! & I have loved every single moment of it. Finally had an excuse not to do anything with my hair and wear a jacket :) Sometimes I miss the crazy weather of Colorado and how it always keeps you on your toes! But the rain has definitely been a blessing in disguise and along with it, MANY blessings from Heaven were poured down upon us this week!

This week Sister Mims and I have been working our tails off to get to know our Ward Members better and to street contact as many people as possible. We had a lot of success this week and had some cool experiences that I will always remember!

So as we were going to go visit one of our Members, we had to park pretty far away since Apartment complex's here don't believe in Visitor's Parking. So as we were walking we heard some music and stumbled upon these kids in a garage band! We waited for them to finish up the song they were playing and then I just went up and started asking these kinds about their guitars and the type of music that they play. They were SUPER cool and even had a Trumpet in some of their songs! They looked super shocked that I knew as much as I did about guitars and different Bands but what probably shocked them the most was when I asked them if they knew the band "The Killers" and their lead singer Brandon Flowers.  They were like "Yeah of course! They are one of our favorite bands!" So then we told them that Brandon Flowers was a Mormon and committed all of them to go check out his video on Mormon.org. It was super fun and I can definitely cross off my bucket list: "Street Contact a High School Garage Band" :)

But sometimes when we are walking down the street, the Lord places unexpected service opportunities in our path. Yesterday as we were walking through another apartment complex, we saw this older gentleman sitting on the ground with his wife kind of standing over him trying to help him get back up. It looked like he had fallen down so we jogged up to them and asked if he needed any help up. He looked at us for a second and then said, "You would have to be pretty strong!" and without hesitation Sister Mims says, "Oh trust me, I did wrestling AND weight lifting in High School!" So together after a few attempts we were finally able to help this man get back on his feet with his cane. They thanked us and we told them that as missionaries, we are always there to help those in need. As we were walking away I just had the absolute BEST feeling in my heart and I know that we helped that couple to feel of Christ's love that day.

Another SUPER cool miracle that we had this week, was our Friday Night dinner appointment. This family is extremely missionary minded and is a wonderful example of "loving their friends and neighbors into the Gospel". A couple of months ago they felt like they needed to be more Christ-like to their neighbors so they went over and introduced themselves to a family that had just moved into the complex. They instantly became good friends and the Church has always been a main topic of their conversations. So on Friday for our dinner, she invited her friend to come and eat with us and we had a super spiritual lesson with them! Her friend is already reading out of the Book of Mormon and truly wants to know for herself that this Church is true. She has already been to church 3 times now and we have a return appointment for Thursday AND Saturday.

From all these experiences this week I have learned SO much about the Atonement of Jesus Christ. I have learned so much about how God loves all of His children and THAT is why He provided us with His only Begotten Son, Jesus Christ. I have felt that same exact love with all of those people we have met this week and I know that we were able to do the same thing that Christ would do if He was in that situation. I know that as missionaries we are here to spiritually help people "get back on their feet in the right direction" and that Christ will ALWAYS be our "cane" there to support us every step of the way.

I love you all and I am truly grateful for all of your love and support!

xoxo Sister Morgan