Friday, October 24, 2014

ADFLIUSDFHLASDIFJSDHSJFH <---The Basic Summary of my Thoughts

Hey Everyone! Wow, can you believe that this is my LAST email as a missionary?! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

I have sooo many mixed emotions right now. I am SO excited to see my family and our new home. I'm excited to apply the MANY things that I have learned these past 18 months for the rest of my life. But I am going to really, really, really, REALLY miss being a Missionary here in San Diego. This has truly been THE happiest 18 months of my whole life. Don't get me wrong though, the reason why it has been the happiest 18 months of my life isn't because everything was hunky dory all the time. There were some "hunky dory" moments, but in all honesty, they were few and far between.

What has made these months the happiest of my life is all of the trials, struggles, and difficulties that I had each and every day. It has been the days where I felt like I had absolutely NOTHING left in me. It was in those days where I was frustrated or hurt and literally fell to my knees begging for mercy. It was in those days where I had doors slammed in my face. It was even in those days where I would get super impatient with all of my weaknesses and faults. EVERY SINGLE DAY these past 18 months have been filled with some sort of trial, adversity, or set back.

As I looked back at that list I realized how I might kind of sound like a crazy person saying I experienced true and undeniable happiness during the most difficult trials of my life. It may sound crazy to you, but to me it wasn't those experiences that brought me happiness, but it was as I applied and relied upon the Atonement of Jesus Christ every single day that brought me that TRUE happiness. When I would wake up feeling like I had absolutely ZERO energy in my body, I would pray and ask my Savior to give me the energy that I needed. And I would receive it. When I would fall down on my knees pleading for mercy-I would receive it. When I would have doors slammed in my face I would ask Heavenly Father for a tender mercy and I would receive it. When ever I felt like all of my faults and weaknesses were hindering the work, I would pray and ask for forgiveness and strength to overcome those faults and weaknesses and I would receive it.

It was the peace, love, and joy that I felt in my heart as I served with EVERYTHING that I had and relied upon the Atonement to make up the difference that allowed me to experience PURE happiness and joy that comes from living & sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ every day. It was as I prayed and relied upon God that I felt His INFINITE love that can only be expressed from a loving Heavenly Father to His literal Daughter. I am SO grateful though that every thing that I have mentioned today doesn't only apply to missionaries. That's the beauty of it. The Gospel of Jesus Christ & His Atonement applies to ONE & ALL. So even after I am released and resume life and school, I can STILL experience the same true joy that I have felt every day of my Mission.

In closing I just wanted to share my testimony again about prayer. I feel like I talk about prayer in every email, but the reason why is because it is SO important! This past Sunday I had my last Mission Presidents Fireside where I & 6 of my closest friends who are all going home with me, performed the song, "Secret Prayer" Hymn # 144. We all sang our hearts out and I even accompanied it with my Ukulele :) I just want to share the lyrics as my closing testimony, because I truly feel like these words are my words & express everything that I am feeling right now.

1. There is an hour of peace and rest,
Unmarred by earthly care;
'Tis when before the Lord I go
And kneel in secret prayer.


2. The straight and narrow way to heav'n,
Where angels bright and fair
Are singing to God's praise, is found
Thru constant secret prayer.


3. When sailing on life's stormy sea,
'Mid billows of despair,
'Tis solace to my soul to know
God hears my secret prayer.


4. When thorns are strewn along my path,
And foes my feet ensnare,
My Savior to my aid will come,
If sought in secret prayer.


I KNOW that our Savior Jesus Christ will truly come to our aid as we ask Him through prayer. I KNOW that He is the Son of God, my Savior and Redeemer, and that He personally knows and loves me. I KNOW that He lovingly restored His Church once again on the Earth today and that I proudly wear the name of that Church on my name tag. I KNOW that Joseph Smith was a Prophet of God and that ever since him we have had a Living Prophet on the Earth. I KNOW that Thomas S. Monson is Prophet, Seer, and Revelator today and I love and sustain him. I KNOW that the Atonement of Jesus Christ is real and that only through His Atonement can we be cleansed from sin.

I love you all. THANK YOU for all of your support, love, and encouragement that you have given me as I have embarked on this amazing journey. I truly appreciate everything!

Love always,
xoxo Sister Morgan  :)

Sunday, October 19, 2014

God Doesn't Call the Qualified, He Qualifies the Called

Hey Everyone! The final countdown has begun.......2 MORE WEEKS! I can't believe how fast time has flown, but don't worry, I'm truly making the most of EVERY single second that I have left to be a full-time set apart Missionary and Representative of Jesus Christ.

Ever since I got to this area 10 weeks ago, I have been praying & praying & praying that Heavenly Father would help us to find those who are pure in heart. To find those who will recognize the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon and of the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ. We have had many opportunities to teach those that are getting close to that point, but many of them don't live in our area so we had to refer them to some other missionaries. It would be frustrating at times having to send out all of these amazing referrals and then having to start back at square one again in our own area & begin the "finding" process again. I kept telling my companion that someday it will all go full circle. Whatever we send out, someone will send to us. And this week, IT FINALLY HAPPENED.

Wednesday night after exchanges we look at our phone and see that we have a voice mail. We listen and its a Member from Texas asking us if we could meet with one of their friends, Shannon, that lives in our area. So we get her information, call her the next morning, and set up an appointment for later that night to meet with her at the Stake Center. We get there and have THE most spiritually powerful Church Tour that I've EVER experienced before!

So here's a brief summary of Shannon-SHE'S AMAZING. She has survived stage 4 Breast Cancer, TWICE, and beat it without using ANY chemotherapy-she only used natural medicines! This woman was literally on her death bed, when God taught her that she was still going to do many things in her life that will change and bless SO many people. Now that she has been cancer free for 3 years, she runs a non-profit organization that helps fund-raise money for cancer patients who can't afford their treatments. She works with quite a few organizations and is seriously Wonder Woman! She does all of this out of the pure goodness of her heart and refuses to accept money for her services. She has so much faith and trust in God and knows that He will help provide for her needs. Which is how we came in to the picture! Shannon was literally starving because she didn't have enough money to buy food. Our Bishop asked that we would do a "needs assessment" when we met with her and see how interested she was in the Church.

From the first moment I met her my Spirit literally jumped because I truly felt like I have known her once before. We've never met before in this life & I honestly feel like we are "kindred spirits". As we met with her at the Church we gave her a Church Tour to show her around because she had never been inside one of our buildings before. At our Stake Center, they have arranged all the art work in a certain order that allows us to teach the Restoration as we walk & explain each art piece. Before we even started talking about the Restoration she saw the painting of Joseph Smith in the Sacred Grove and asked if we could explain more about him and his life. So we sat down and started teaching & I honestly have NEVER felt the Spirit teach so powerfully through me before. She was soaking all of it in and as we continued to teach you could see the light within her eyes growing and illuminating her countenance.

We then stood back up to take her into the Chapel and on our way there she saw the large painting of Christ ordaining His 12 Apostles to the Priesthood and she stopped mid step to look at it. She stared at Christ's face and I explained what He was doing and referred back to what we had just talked about how Christ's priesthood authority is once again on the earth today. She smiled and said, "I love this painting. I love how Authoritative Christ looks. I've never seen anything like it". Once we entered the Chapel we explained the purpose of why we come to Church & the Sacrament. Then Sis Saedan played "I Know That My Redeemer Lives" on the piano for her. The peaceful feeling of the Spirit that was in that Chapel was so incredibly powerful and I will truly cherish that moment forever!

As we were sitting in there Shannon was talking to me about her Non-Profit work and telling me about how overwhelmed she feels with it. There are so many people turning to her for advice and counsel and she was afraid that God has called her to do something that is too much for her to handle. I then told her how I felt the same way when I became a missionary. But something that one of my Mission Prep teachers taught me was that "God doesn't call the qualified, but He qualifies the called". She pondered about that for a minute and turned to me and said, "God is qualifying me right now huh?" and I said, "Yup. That's why you are sitting here in this Chapel at this precise moment. That is why we have come into your life today!"  After our closing prayer she mentioned how she didn't want to leave the building. She said "I felt the most peace I have ever experienced in my life as I met with you girls today!"

AHHHHHHHHHHHSDFLHDLKSDJFHLDSKJFHLDSKJH!!!! We were seriously on Cloud Nine that night! On Saturday we were supposed to meet up again but she called and seriously left the most heart breaking message ever to cancel our appointment. She talked about how her Dad is dying with Cancer right now and since she is so close to her Dad, she won't be able to look him in the eyes and tell him she's changing religions because she knows it will completely break his heart. He almost became a Catholic Priest but is just a Seminary Teacher right now. She left the Catholic church a loooooong time ago, but her Dad still attributes everything that she's doing to the Catholic Church. He never let her associate with Mormons growing up and she said she can't do that to her Dad right now and have that be his last memory of her.

After listening to her message I was completely heart broken! But I was determined not to let her slip away that easy. So we knelt down and prayed for guidance of the Spirit right before we called her back. That phone call was literally the most spirit filled phone conversation I've EVER experienced! She sat there in tears and described how the Book of Mormon was sitting right next to a picture of her and her Dad and she felt so torn between the two. She said the "Book of Mormon just keeps beckoning me to open it and read it!" After 1 hr and 45 mins of pure spiritual guidance and me testifying the most powerful I ever have my whole Mission, Shannon told us that she finally understood what God needs her to do. She no longer felt torn and said that she again felt that same powerful peace that she felt with us at the Stake Center.

On Sunday she came to Church. She actually stood up and bore her testimony so she could "briefly introduce herself to everyone and share her story" :) :) :) :) We couldn't attend any of the classes because EVERYONE kept coming up and talking to her and truly helped her to feel so welcomed and loved. It was AMAZING! We also were able to get a food order for her so this truly remarkable Saint doesn't have to be starving any more!

I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY!

I LOVE THE RESTORED GOSPEL OF JESUS CHRIST!

I LOVE THE PRIESTHOOD POWER & AUTHORITY THAT I HAVE AS A FULL-TIME SET APART REPRESENTATIVE OF CHRIST!

I LOVE THE HOLY GHOST & HIS ABILITY TO CONFIRM TRUTH AND PEACE IN OUR HEARTS!

I LOVE THE PEOPLE I HAVE BEEN ABLE TO MEET THESE PAST 18 MONTHS!

I LOVE MY MISSION!

I LOVE MY HEAVENLY FATHER AND SAVIOR JESUS CHRIST!

Without ANY of these things, I would not be the person I am today. I am so grateful for my Heavenly Father knowing me better than I know myself. I am so grateful for the plan that He has for my life and I am SO grateful that it is a million times more amazing than my own plans.

I LOVE MY FAMILY & FRIENDS!

& I'm excited to see you all in 2 weeks!

xoxoxxo
Sister Morgan

Saturday, October 11, 2014

"Why should I talk to them? I don't even know them!"

Hey Everyone!

I don't know about you, but can I just first start off by saying how much I LOVE this Church and LOVE the fact that we have a Modern Day Prophet living on the Earth today?! General Conference was amazing and I am so grateful for the much needed personal revelation the Lord has blessed me with! The world is getting pretty crazy, but I KNOW that if we always listen and act upon the teachings of the Prophet, then we will never be lead astray! He is the authorized mouthpiece of Jesus Christ and because of that, we can have peace in knowing that he will always guide us back to our Savior and Heavenly Father!

Riding a 6 passenger bike w/ 8 Sister Missionaries
around Coronado!
Conference this year seriously was such a spiritual experience for me. As I pondered and prayed about specific questions that I had before Conference, as I watched I literally felt like Heavenly Father was pouring a bucket of spiritual nourishment and answers upon my head! I walked out of Conference feeling like I was on Cloud Nine again and ready to conquer the world!

Well, actually the funny experience that happened this week literally happened about 20 mins after the Saturday Afternoon Session. As we left the Stake Center and started driving back to our area, I saw a cute old Chinese couple walking down the opposite side of the road from us. It was almost a little bit of a "flash back" moment from my days in China because this couple completely looked the part of a Chinese "Grandma and Grandpa". They were walking under a pale purple umbrella to protect them from the Sun, the woman was wearing those puffy white arm sleeves, and they were walking with their groceries in hand.

When I first saw them I immediately had the thought that we should flip around and talk to them. But then I realized that if they were really from China then I wouldn't be able to talk to them because I have forgotten ALL of the useful Chinese I had learned. But then I remembered that my lovely companion, Sis. Saedan, had taken 3 years of Mandarin in High School! So I asked her, "You feeling confident in your Mandarin today?" and she just turned and looked at me with a blank stare on her face......so I took that as a YES and we flipped around at the next stoplight. There wasn't a good place to park on the busy street that they were walking down, so we parked right next to the Stake Center and jumped out of the car. We started walking towards the street hoping that we could "bump" into them, but then we saw that they had started crossing over the busy street away from us.

Zone silly faces!
So then I looked at Sis Saedan again and asked, "You feeling up for going on a run today?" and after receiving the same blank stare, we looked both ways and then started bookin' it across this busy street to catch up with them. As we were running a few of the Elders were driving by and yelled something out the window at us, but neither of us heard because we were so focused on not letting this Chinese couple get out of our sight. Once we finally made it to them, we tried talking to them and they obviously understood ZERO English. So then Sis Saedan started talking to them in Mandarin and we finally got them to stop.

As I sat there watching this conversation go down, I had NO idea what was being said, but it was sooooo funny watching all of their facial expressions. After attempting to talk to them for about 10 mins they handed us our Mormon.org card back and started walking away still mumbling to each other. I turned to Sis. Saedan and was like, "What just happened?!" Turns out this couple IS from China, but they actually speak Cantonese.....haha so apparently they were super confused about why we were talking with them and originally thought at first that we needed help. Then when we tried giving them the Mandarin Sisters number to call so they could speak to them, but Sis Saedan accidentally said, "They miss you!" instead of "They would like to talk to you!" and the guy was like, "Why should I talk to them.....I don't even know them!" hahahahaha Then he actually did call them but they didn't answer.....at first he thought that their answering machine was them talking to him and he started to respond back but would pause and then try to talk again. I guess he thought they were just interrupting him and so he got mad and hung up hahaha

I don't know why we needed to talk to that Chinese couple, but it was definitely an experience I will remember forever! I love this Gospel so much and I am so grateful for every opportunity that I have to open my mouth and share this wonderful news with anyone and everyone that I can. I only have 3 more weeks left, but I am determined to finish strong and to continue to see even more miracles as I share this Gospel with everyone that I can in my beautiful Sunny San Diego :)

I love you all!
xoxo Sister Morgan

Wednesday, October 1, 2014

Everlasting Beginnings

We LOVE San Diego!
Hey Everyone!

Well, talk about deja vu.......wasn't I just sitting at this computer emailing you all yesterday?! Man, these last 4 weeks are just going to FLY by.

Poway Rodeo!
This past week was one of those weeks where Sis Saedan and I will just write in our planners, "Service for DAYZZZ". Oh my goodness, it felt SO good to get down in the dirt and work hard out in the beautiful San Diego sun! We were able to help set up the Poway Rodeo with a few of the Elders and that was SO fun! Definitely brought back a lot of memories & made me miss the San Luis Valley as well as the Imperial Valley :) It was pretty funny though, our second day there they asked us to hang up all the advertisements on the bleachers and of course most of the advertisements were for Bud Light...............hahaha Nothin' better than asking a group of Mormon missionaries to advertise beer! ;)

Crazy hat day @ the Rodeo :)
We also helped one of our returning less-actives to start putting up her Halloween decorations....never thought I would see someone use a bow and arrow to hang out their decorations!

But to be honest, I think everything finally hit me this week. In my mind I kept avoiding the thought of going home and after some much needed humbling, the Lord was able to teach me some very important things that will help me to truly finish my mission strong instead of just "dreading" to the end. We had dinner with some members and the husband said some things to me that really helped change my perspective. He said, "You know what Sis Morgan, it's okay to be a little trunky and excited to go home! Your mission has been wonderful, but trust me, there are things that will happen in your future that will be 10 times more amazing than your mission. This time is just the foundation for the rest of your life! Enjoy it while you're here, but APPLY it once you take that name tag off. You have a bright future ahead of you!"

Heavenly Father truly does know how to use His children to reach down deep inside my heart! This week I really learned some amazing life lessons. As that kind Brother was talking to me the beautiful and soft words of President Uchtdorf came swarming into my mind,

"In light of what we know about our eternal destiny, is it any wonder that whenever we face the bitter endings of life, they seem unacceptable to us? There seems to be something inside of us that resists endings.

Why is this? Because we are made of the stuff of eternity. We are eternal beings, children of the Almighty God, whose name is Endless13 and who promises eternal blessings without number. Endings are not our destiny.

The more we learn about the gospel of Jesus Christ, the more we realize that endings here in mortality are not endings at all. They are merely interruptions—temporary pauses that one day will seem small compared to the eternal joy awaiting the faithful.

How grateful I am to my Heavenly Father that in His plan there are no true endings, only everlasting beginnings."

I am a Daughter of the Most High King! YOU are also a Son/Daughter of the Most High King! Because we are His Children we know that we have the potential to become like our Father and to live eternally with Him & with Jesus Christ, AND our families. I am so grateful for this Gospel and the knowledge and perspective that it brings into my life. I know that once I take off this name tag, it is only the everlasting beginning of my new life. My Mission has forever changed me. But it has changed me in a way that will allow me to grow and build upon it and become even more the daughter that my Heavenly Father knows I can become.

I love you all!!
xoxo Sister Morgan

An old lady that walks up and down the street all day and
waves at EVERYONE that she see's. I LOVE IT