"Jose, can't you seeeeeee?!"

Welcome to the 4th of July in PB!

Hey everyone!!! Happy 4th of July! I hope you all had a wonderful day celebrating our Independence! I know everyone in PB had a CRAZY good time celebrating the 4th.......haha It was like a MAD house here this past weekend. I have NEVER seen soooooo many cars and soooooo many people crammed into parking lots and on the beach! It was definitely an interesting day for us to say in the least........haha

Well, I guess the day started off very patriotic as we got to Meet the President!!!!!! Not the President that most of you are probably thinking......but our new Mission President & his family! I.LOVE.THEM. They have such a wonderful excitement for this work and it has seriously spread throughout the whole mission! It has been such a testimony builder to see the priesthood keys & mantle move between President Clayton and President Schmitt.

So i'll introduce the Schmitt's to you all briefly :)

President & Sister Schmitt came from Houston Texas, but President originally grew up in good 'ol Yuma AZ! They both served missions in California :) They have 4 kids: David-15 Tyler-11 Elle-10 & Clayton-6&3/4. Their only daughter, Elle, prayed the night before they opened their mission call that they would be sent to San Diego. And would you look at that........HEAVENLY FATHER TRULY DOES ANSWER PRAYERS! And here they are today :) Apparently, a TON of the newly called Mission Presidents & their wives said that their top 3 choices for their missions were 1: San Diego 2: San Diego & 3: SAN DIEGO. So apparently, this must be the most celestial Mission if everyone wants to come serve the Lord here :) I'm SO BLESSED to be able to call this place my 2nd HOME. I love it will all of my heart!

So this upcoming Saturday we are having 2 more baptisms! I have truly come to love both of these people SOOOO MUCH and I feel so blessed and humbled that I have been able to help them along this journey. Sara just recently married a Member of our Ward who is a RM from Chile. She has been SO prepared and truly loves this Gospel so much. She can't wait until next year when they can be sealed in the Temple as a family for ALL eternity!

Our other baptism is Bret. I.LOVE.THIS.MAN. It has been such a blessing to teach him these past 7 weeks and to see how much he has grown. In March the Sister's found him as they were looking for one of their former investigators. Bret grew up with some really good LDS friends and has always respected the Church so much. But the Sister's truly found him at the perfect time. He was a drug addict, an alcoholic, a smoker since he was 10, had no job, living on a boat, & basically his life was in the shams. He'll be the first to tell you that his "light" was almost extinguished! He was almost baptized in April but 4 days before his baptism he started smoking again. After that he needed a "breather" from the church and the Sisters didn't see him for about a month. Then he started coming to church again the Sunday before we arrived in the area. When I first met him, he was trying to get down to half a pack a day. But since we've started teaching him he has finished reading the Book of Mormon, has quit smoking and hasn't smoked in almost 30 DAYS, and he is the HAPPIEST person you will ever meet!

This past week he kept telling us about how nervous he was to bear his testimony after his baptism. He considers himself to be an "introvert" (we all know that is a lie. Once you crack him open he is the friendliest and funniest person you will EVER meet) & the idea of speaking in front of a room filled w/ people terrified him. But on Saturday we talked to him all about why we bear our testimony's and how it is more for the benefit of those who are listening and how it also solidifies our own testimonies even more as we share it.

So on Sunday we were just sitting there in Sacrament Meeting listening to the beautiful testimonies and all of a sudden I just see Bret stand up and walk straight up to the pulpit to bear his testimony! & I have to add, WE DID NOT HAVE ANYTHING TO DO WITH IT. He just felt the Spirit and had the courage to act on it and go bear his testimony! It was the most beautiful testimony I have ever listened to! He was SOOOO nervous, and was cracking the funniest jokes, but when he got serious, he bore the most sincere testimony about how he knows this Church is true. He knows it is true because he has read the scriptures & if you live your life according to what the scriptures say, then you'll know that this is Jesus Christ's church! I seriously cried it was so precious. And at the very end he used some sign language that we had the ASL Elders teach him and closed his testimony by signing "In the Name of Jesus Christ, AMEN"

The best part was that since it was 4th of July weekend, we had 555 PEOPLE IN SACRAMENT MEETING. It was absolutely amazing to see how many people came up to him after the meeting and thanked him for his testimony! What I love most is being able to see how much Bret has grown these past 7 weeks. 7 weeks ago he was grumpy, sad, and depressed. Today he is happy, friendly, and TRULY radiating with the Light of Christ! And I KNOW it is because he is keeping ALL of the commandments and living the Gospel of Jesus Christ!

I KNOW that this Church is true! And I KNOW that you can experience the greatest joy you can ever have in this life as you truly live the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

I love you all!

xoxo Sister Morgan