Christmas Conference

Dear Family and Friends,

I am so excited about the Christmas Zone Conference coming up on
Friday! Every time I think about it I just want to scream and jump up
and down like a little kid! I love zone conferences and I am so
excited for this one because I will only have one Christmas in the
mission field and I need to make it better than any Christmas so far!
We have lots of plans with the families in our wards and it is great
because I have been here since August so I know everyone well and I
love them like family!

I am so excited to be with Sis. Mecham on Christmas too! It will be
like watching a little kid on Christmas morning! haha! She is such a
sweetheart, I love her so much! We had a really tough comp inventory
the other day. She said some things to me that I was not expecting and
it threw me for a loop. With all of my former companions we had always
gotten along fine and I felt the same with Sis Mecham. She informed me
that it was not the same on her side of things. We were able to talk
about the things that I had done or said that had unintentionally hurt
her feelings or made her uncomfortable or anxious. I explained some
things about myself that helped her understand that I didn't intend to
do the things that she didn't like. We shared a lot of things that I
think brought us even closer as companions. We have a more open
communication with each other that she felt was lacking before. I felt
so terrible and was blindsided by the things she was telling me that I
was baffled and speechless for quite awhile, while I thought about
her concerns. We are great with each other now and we look back at
that conversation and thank our Heavenly Father for it. I am
constantly working on the things that she said I needed to, in order
to make this work a little bit easier for her.

On to the next topic, in my personal study of The Book of Mormon, I
just so happened to be at the end of 2 Nephi today. I read chapters
29-33. I obviously loved being able to read these wonderful chapters
that talk so much about The Doctrine of Christ. In the very last verse
of ch 33 it says, "...for thus hath the Lord commanded me, and I must
obey. Amen" Since Sister Greer unpacked 2 Nephi 31 at the The Doctrine
of Christ training I have really been focused on the word "must". This
phrase struck me deeply today. Nephi did not acknowledge that the Lord
gave him commandments and it was his choice to obey or not. He said
that he must obey them. How often do I think that yes the Lord has
commanded me in all things... but I still have my agency. I NEVER want
to think that again! I always want to think as Nephi did. The Lord
commands and that means that my agency should be gone. Not because He
takes it away by His command, because he would never do that, but
simply because I have already made up my mind that anything the Lord
asks, I will do it because I MUST do it. I am so grateful to be a
representative of the Lord Jesus Christ because I must share the truth
with those who lack the fullness of His gospel.

This week was kind of rough! I have been sick with a very nasty cold.
I felt like I wanted to die or just sleep all the time and since
neither were a luxury that would be allowed to me I was able to suffer
through it. I am thank goodness feeling better but still not 100%.  We
had a big district lunch this week since it was transfer week so that
we could meet all the new missionaries in the area. I probably looked
like death so our zone leader Elder Peterson offered me a blessing. I
accepted and the Elders all stood around me a gave me a wonderful
Priesthood blessing of healing and comfort. I instantly started to get
better and better from that time forward. I am so grateful that the
Lord is mindful of our individual needs and that He loves us so much.
I still struggle in the mornings and late at night to overcome the
ills I feel but the Lord provides the way during the daytime hours so
I am thankful for that! Sister Mecham has really stepped up and helped
a lot! She is going to be a great trainer at the end of January (next
transfer). lol

I look forward to seeing you next week! Sister Combs, who we live
with, will email you tonight to figure out all the details of when and
how I will be skyping home! Sorry for not being more on top of things
about that! Love you all!

Sweet is the Work

Hola Familia y amigos/as,

 

This past week we had a specialized training on THE Doctrine of Christ . I absolutely LOVE The Doctrine of Christ. I can only hope and pray that I will understand it more and more everyday while I am here on my mission and after I return home. I am so grateful for the opportunity I have to learn from President and Sister Greer and all of the assistants. Every time I leave a training of any kind I wish that I could teach the way that they all do. I always learn so much and at the same time, it makes me feel dumb. (haha, but in a good way, because that means that I just need to keep studying and learning more and more everyday). Anyways, enough about that though.

 

We had a baptism this week and it was just wonderful. Sister Mecham and I were on cloud nine we were so happy. Lucas was so ready to be baptized. For being an 18 year old young man, he has a quiet dignity. He doesn't talk that much but when he does it is intelligent and you can tell that he thought about it for a while! The baptism was great! We did the intermission, and the DVD player didn't work for us so we only got to show one video that we wanted to. But I think that is all we needed. The Spirit was so strong and even though it was at 8 on a Saturday night the turn out was outstanding! The Relief Society room was full to capacity and more! The only incident was that when he was going under the water he was in the font the wrong direction so he hit his head on the back wall...oops! but he went all the way under and they didn't have to redo it. :) I am so happy when we get to see these people make the commitment to be baptized. I love teaching people. We have been doing a lot more tracting lately and even though we haven't been able to find the elect yet, I am not getting discouraged by the doors shutting in our faces...It is just one more person on the list of "not quite 'white' yet" (D&C 4) and we are off to find "the one"!

 

Sister Mecham is still doing awesome. She struggles sometimes still with being homesick but she can kick it away pretty fast now days. I am excited to have made it to 10 months...It seems pretty crazy that it has been that long, and time only seems to be picking up speed. I won't even realize when it is over that I have been here for 18 months! I love you and I love the Lord and I love being a missionary preaching His doctrine The Doctrine of Christ!

           Keep up the great work back home and I look forward to hearing from you soon!

10 Month Accident....

 I am so excited that I have been a missionary for 10
months now...It seems SO unreal! Its December which seems even more
unreal, lol. This last week was great! We had a lot of lessons and
fasted for a lot of things so hopefully we will be seeing even more
success in the coming weeks. We are so so so excited this week because
Lucas is getting baptized on Saturday and he is totally ready for
this. He practically planned his entire baptism which is totally
awesome! I will be sure to send pictures next week of the event. :)
           This week we had the Festival of the Nativities. It was
almost exactly like the one we had back home but this one has been a
regular thing in this area for 12 years now. It was at my old Stake
Center so we couldn't go by ourselves. A couple of the ladies that we
are teaching (mother and daughter) took us to go and see it. It was so
neat and the Spirit was so strong. It was so awesome to be able to
remember the true meaning of Christmas with those that I get to bring
the message of the restored gospel to. I know that they really enjoyed
it as well.
           A lot of people have been asking me about the weather here
this time of year. To be honest with you it is pretty weird. It will
be rainy, windy, cold and miserable for a little bit then it will
lighten up and drizzle. Sometimes it will start off just overcast and
not raining for a bit of the day and then start to rain/drizzle later.
The sun seems to make its appearance sometime during the day but never
for very long. It gets light outside about 7ish and gets dark outside
about 4:30-5ish. It is very hard to have the desire to go and knock on
people's doors when it is dark and rainy and cold. lol...But you gotta
do what you gotta do.
            I am going to try to send some pictures to explain the
reasoning for the title of my email. Do not be alarmed. It was an
accident and ALL IS WELL in the Kingdom. :) I will also send an
individual email to you mother with a list of things that I have thought
would be nice to receive for Christmas. Please share it with others as
you wish.
          I am so excited to be a missionary at Christmas time! It is
going to be the best! People seem to have a more open heart when the
Christmas Spirit is in the air. I know that it is not going to get any
easier but it is definitely going to get more exciting and meaningful
for me as well. The Lord is hastening His work. I hope you can feel
it. The end is near, we may not know exactly when He will come again
but we know that it not much farther away. I am so happy that I chose
to serve and that I came here to Washington. It obviously wasn't my
first choice but I know that the Lord needed me here. I love it here!
I love everyone that I have met here and I love everyone that I
haven't met here. It is such a different feeling...haha!
         I hope you all have a wonderful week and I look forward to
hearing from you and skyping home for Christmas. We will be doing it
from the Comb's home (where we live). They have high tech stuff so
we'll please try to have a better connection this time! ;) lol I love
you all! Happy December!

PTSD--Post Turkey Stomach Disorder

So I am still full from Thanksgiving, haha! But It was GREAT!
Here is the low down of what happened that day....6:30 wake up as
usual and exercise/lay on the ground, 7:00 get ready, 8:00 personal
study, 9:00 big breakfast with the Combs family (family we live with),
then we help her prepare Thanksgiving dinner for her family, 12:00
Appitizers and visit with the Wood family (family in the Lacamans
Creek ward), 2:15 go to a random persons house and knock on their door
and no one answers so we pull out our rake and rake their leaves and
bag them and put them in our trunk (random act of service for the
day), 3:00 Thanksgiving dinner at the Reid's home with the Lefevre's
(so much fun with Harmony ward) 5:00 Go to Rodger and Yvette's (in
Lacamas Creek) -- I eat again to be nice and Sis Mecham doesn't because
she was about to puke lol 6:30 go back to the Ried's for pie 7;20 go
to the awesome Roberts' family home in Harmony to eat more pie and
drink sparkling cider :) (SO GOOD) and then we went back home and
planned and crashed! Haha, it was a day full of fun and way too much
food!
        Also this week we had exchanges and I got to go back to my old
area of Mountain View ward and the Clark YSA ward. I got to work with
Sis Ireland who was in the same MTC district as Sis Mecham. Sis Brown
is training her. So exchanges were fun, Its interesting to see how I
have only been gone from that area since August and yet eveyone that
they are teaching has changed it seems. We had some super awesome
lessons with people that neither of us had met. It was great! We got a
lot done and I got to say hello/bye to a few of my favorite people
from that area again.
        I am so grateful to have Sis Mecham as my baby/trainee...She
is such and awesome missionary. I tell her that all the time but she
doesn't seem to believe me. She is so solid and a wonderful teacher.
Her testimony is powerful and she is so sweet and has such a tender
heart. I know that that she will be training a lot on her mission.
         So I am running out of time, sorry! But some quick
updates...I will be skyping from the Comb's home on Christmas. I will
send a hand written wish list. I will attach more pics soon,
(hopefully). We have a very very awesome baptism coming up on Dec 8th
so please pray for Lucas and Sabrina :) They are definitely a couple of
my favs! I love you all and I hope you have a wonderful week!
       I was thinking earlier last week about how it was a year ago on
Thanksgiving that I announced to everyone that I would be serving a
mission and that I had turned in my papers. It is so weird to think
about that because it doesn't seem like it was that long ago. But I
will be home before we know it! Love you and miss you and I hope to
hear from you all soon!

Happy Thanksgiving

 Hello!!! How is everyone doing?? I haven't been hearing from
very many people so I hope everything is still going okay everywhere!
:) I can't believe it is already the Holiday season...It is so weird!
haha! I have been thinking about what it would be like to be home this
year for the holidays and I hate to say this but I am more excited to
be here this year then down there in good old Oklahoma. Don't get me
wrong, I would love to be at home spending as much time as possible
with my family and friends, but sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ
during this time of year should be fun to say the least.
       I was thinking of some of our Thanksgiving traditions that we
do as a family and I remembered that I will not be there to write in
our Thanksgiving book this year to have it read with all of the other
entries....I remember that it was in this book that I announced to
everyone that I would be serving a mission. Its weird to think that it
has only been a little over year since I decided to serve and I have
been here for 9 and a half months already! Along with the book I will
miss eating Mother's amazing pumpkin pie. People here ask me what I
love to eat at Thanksgiving and I always answer them by saying that my
Mother makes the best pumpkin pie ever and that they can try to
duplicate it, but they won't succeed, BUT I also won't complain
because it will still be pumpkin pie. lol! I am a little nervous about
how much people will be feeding us! People love to feed missionaries
until we are about to explode... I have a hard time saying NO haha!
They tell me to eat more so I cave in and eat more because it tastes
SSSOOO good! haha! I will have to work out a ton after the holidays.
          So on a sad note, we had a couple rough things happen to us
this week... Our wonderful miracle family, the S family, broke up with
us. :( It was the hardest most saddening thing that has happened to me
on my entire mission so far. We had a very powerful lesson with Sis. S
and daughter, but they still decided that the church was not the path
that they wanted to be on right now. As devastated as I am about this
because I love them SO much, I am at peace about it. We left
everything on a good terms with them and they said they would continue
to read and pray about the Book of Mormon. We made sure that they
understood that we would still be more than happy to come and answer
any of their questions. I know with all my heart that they will join
the true church someday and that they will be sealed for time and
eternity in the temple. I have seen it! I have seen them in white! I
have peace in my heart and mind and I know that everything is in the
Lord's hands. He knows their hearts and he knows how to touch them
individually. I can only hope and pray that they will listen to His
answer while I am still here to see it happen. But if not, I know that
they have very strong seeds planted for future missionaries to come
and harvest later. Please continue to pray for this amazing family!
The other rough thing about this week is, the non-stop gloom
and rain has set in. It is cold and it is rainy and it is wet and it
is GRAY! All the time the sky is totally gray...But on the plus side,
there is green everywhere too. The trees are green, the ground is
green, everything is mossy, and slippery lol...So we are stocked up on
Vitamin D and C and we will make it though....Please write me some
letters, but I am not begging (pictures would me nice too) :)
           We had an amazing mission conference this week with Elder
Paul B. Pieper of the 1st Quorom of the 70. He was amazing! We spent
from 9 in the morning till 3 in the afternoon with him. He had
fantastic insights into the scriptures and I wish I could share them
all with you, but I can't. It felt like he was speaking directly to my
soul. I was so grateful for his presence and the love that he brought
to us from the prophet. I am so excited for the new missionaries that
will be coming into the field. There are people here to find! There
are people here that are seeking the truth! There are the ELECT!! Help
your missionaries FIND THE ELECT!
         I am so thankful for the opportunity I have to be a
missionary! I never realized how far I have come until I see myself in
Sis. Mecham. I am grateful to be serving here in WA! Even if it is all
rainy now. I'm grateful for the members I have been able to get to
know but more importantly the non-members I have been able to meet. I
love more people than I ever thought was possible! I love everyone I
see on the streets! I love being able to talk to EVERYONE! It is my
right as a representative of the Savior to share His light with
everyone around me. I love my job and I love how I get paid...I only
wish I could do more. I strive to do more! I am thankful for the
support I get from home! I wish you could know how grateful I am for
your prayers! I feel them. I am thankful for you, my family and
friends...I could not be out here and doing this if I didn't know you
were there to support me. I am thankful for this gospel. It is THE
ONLY WAY! Jesus Christ is my Savior, Redeemer and Friend. I am
eternally grateful for His sacrifice for ME. He loves me and I love
Him. I love my God, my Heavenly Father, He has given me so much and I
hope that I show Him everyday by the way I live my life and do His
work. I am grateful for the words of the prophets, both ancient and
modern! They are amazing! I am grateful to be alive and healthy and
happy and to live in America! I am thankful for all my many blessings!
      I am so happy! I love you all! Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Tada!!

Hola Familia! Oh gracious, this has been a week! haha! So
to start this letter off with some SUPER exciting news, I want to
thank everyone that has been praying for the "S" family. If you don't
remember who they are then you are missing out and you should go back
and read one of the previous letters. We had a wonderful lesson with
the S family on Wednesday and the Bishop was with us. We talked about
obedience and following the prophet and the word of wisdom. The Bishop
was awesome to have with us because he is a doctor and because one of
the main concerns of the S family is the word of wisdom, he was able
to talk about more of the scientific reasons why we abstain from the
items in the WofW. Anyway, so the Spirit was Amazingly strong, so
thick in the room that you could have cut it with a knife. Well we
followed the promptings of the Spirit and invited the S family to be
baptized and they said "yes" so we will be having a baptism on Dec 1st
for Bro and Sis S and the 10 year old daughter! I am the happiest
missionary ever right now! I can't believe how much of a miracle this
family is! They are the exact type of people that I was praying that I
would find on my mission. I know that it wouldn't have mattered who
the missionaries were in the area when they were prepared to hear the
gospel I am just so grateful to be blessed that it was me! :)
          When we left the lesson that night, Sister Mecham and I had
a long talk about how it went and how she felt and how they felt as
the investigators. She told me that she doesn't feel that they are
"hers" and that it makes her happy that they are getting baptized but
that she wishes she could have been here when we started to teach
them, I reassured her that I know exactly how she feels. I was in the
same exact place when I first started in Walla Walla and we had a
baptism. I told her that it doesn't matter who we are, it matters that
we fulfill our purpose! Our purpose is to invite others to come unto
Christ by helping them receive the restored gospel... As long as we
remember that, then we can not go wrong. All we have to do is LOVE
EVERYONE and have the desire to serve them because that is what Christ
would do. After our heart to heart she was excited to make the S
family 'hers' in the future! And I am so excited to come back in a
year to see this beautiful family sealed for time and eternity in the
temple of our God.
         Something else exciting that happened this week is that we
had a Specialized Zone Training and Interviews with President Greer!
This was different than zone conference because it was just our zone
and we were making goals for only our zone. It was really really good!
We were taught by the Assistants to the President and our Zone Leaders
as well as President and Sister Greer!  The Greer's had just returned
from CA where they had attended a mission president training
conference with Elder Maynes of the Presidency of the 70. They told us
some really cool stats because of the announcement on missionary work.
Forgive me if you have already heard these things. Before theannouncements the average number of missionary applications opened
online was around 700. The weeks following the announcement went to
4500, 4700, then 5400! Can you believe that! I can't tell you what it
was after that but that is definitely something to be excited about! I
can't believe how fast this is all happening! President told us that
they have increased our missionary compliment from 190 missionaries in
the WKM to 250! They are expected to be all in by March or April! So
crazy! Also the number of sisters is doubling! Woohoo! I have told
Sister Mecham to be ready to train right after I am done training her!
I know that she will be, she is just that AWESOME! :)
            This week we have Elder Pieper of the 1st quorum of the 70
coming on a mission tour and hopefully he will have even more cool
stuff to tell us about how the Lord is hastening his work and how the
second coming will be here before we know it! I am so excited! Aren't
you!? I will fill you in on what he has to tell us in my letter next
week!
            I realized that I didn't tell you anything about Sister
Mecham last week so here you go: She is from Pleasant Grove, Utah. She
is the 4th of 8 kids. The line up is G, B, B, (Mecham), G, B, B, B.
They range in age of 27 to 12. She is just darling! She always has a
smile on her face unless she is crying which happens quite often lol
but it is only because she is very tender hearted and sweet. She is 21
and has wanted to serve a mission since she was 15. Her 1st name is
Whitney which is funny to me because that was Sister Chatwin's first
name even though they were spelled differently. I tease that I named
her after her Grandma. ;) I am not sure what else to say about her
other than how awesome of a missionary she is. I can't believe how
lucky and blessed I was to get her as my 1st baby!
           Anyways, I gotta get going so I hope you all have a great
week and I love you so much! Talk to you later! XOXO

P.S. Funny quote from President Greer...when he saw us at the
specialized training the first thing he said was, "Are you Sisters
still here???" We said in a confused voice, "yes...." He replied, "I
thought you would have been translated by now with all the miracles
that are happening in your area!"

I love President, he is so funny! lol But he is right, there are so
many miracles happening right now, but it has nothing to do with us!
Its is all the Lord because of the prayers of so many! So thank you!
:)

Announcing the Arrival of.......

.....SISTER MECHAM!!!!!! (pronounced "me come") This week was pretty
crazy, BUT---
      I am so blessed! I am loving this opportunity I have to train
and be companions with Sister Mecham! She is so awesome! I almost
feel like she has been out in the mission field as long as I have. She
is so smart and very confident. She loves being a missionary and I
have worked her really hard this past week. From the time Sister
Dilworth left me and I went to be with Sister Brown and Sister McGhie
till Wednesday when I got Sister Mecham, our area was left alone, no
lessons taught or people visited, no new investigators found. I was
very sad that even after Sister Mecham joined me and we went back to
our area we still didn't get any lessons or OYMs (open your
mouths/tracting) because we had a lot to get done and little time to
do it in considering it was Halloween. On Thursday we hit the ground
running! We worked HARD the entire rest of the week. We got a lot
accomplished, in my opinion.
       We went tracting on Thursday (even though I was trying to think
of "better" things to do with the hour of time we had). We went to an
area/neighborhood that Sister Dilworth and I were already tracting in
and went to a new street. I gave Sister Mecham a few pointers, we said
a prayer and were off to knock on doors. I talked at the first door
and they were not interested. We got to the second door and it was her
turn, an eight year old little girl answered the door and we asked to
talk to her mom, she went to get her and when she came to the door I
could feel that this would be good. Sister Mecham introduced us and
did a great OYM. Laura, the woman at the door, was actually
interested! We ended up teaching almost the entire 1st lesson on the
door step. We got a return appt to come and teach more on
Sunday(yesterday)! We were so excited! We kept working hard and
finished the rest of the week.
        Sunday came and we got all prepared to teach The Restoration
to Laura and her family. We knocked on the door and her 5 year old son
, who we also met on Thursday, came and looked out the window and was
really excited and started to shout, "They're here! They're here!" It
was so cute! Laura comes and lets us in. We get to know her and do the
how to begin teaching items to let her know our purpose as
missionaries, which just so happened to fit right in to the lesson and
we got started with a prayer. Laura is such a neat lady, she has lots
of LDS friends and a previous boss was LDS. She committed to read and
pray about The Book of Mormon, but we were not done yet! Sister Mecham
still had to invite someone to be baptized before the day was over, so
we taught some more and the whole time the kids are being loud and
needy. Laura left the table to talk to them and was trying to get them
to play upstairs. While she was gone I gave Sister Mecham some silent
encouragement to ask "the question". When Laura sat back down and it
was quiet, Sister Mecham began to testify and the spirit once again
filled the room. Sister Mecham invited Laura to be baptized. It came
out a little shaky at first but the Spirit was strong and I am sure
Laura felt it. Laura responded and said that she "wasn't so sure about
any of it yet." Sister Mecham waited a moment or two and responded
with and inspired question, "what would be holding you back?" Laura
said that she didn't know enough and that she wanted to know more. We
assured her that that was perfectly alright and that we would love to
come and teach her more. We gave her Moroni chapter 10 to read and
pray about and we made a return appt for 2 weeks later at her request.
We said a closing prayer and left.
I know that Sister Mecham and I were supposed to find Laura. It would
have been great if Sister Dilworth and I found that family, but Sister
Mecham needed to have this experience! It is so wonderful how the Lord
works!
       Other than that, Sister Mecham is hitting it off great with all
the ward members. She fits in wonderfully and everyone loves her! She
is just so easy to love! She is missing her family a lot but I know
that that is normal and I did/do too! We just have to push through and
work hard! I miss all my former companions as well! Its so great to
know that I will have them as friends forever now! I know that the
Lord knows who we are supposed to work with and that and that is why
Sister Mecham was sent to me! These next 11 weeks together are going
to be amazing and WE ARE GOING TO SEE MIRACLES!!!!! :) I am SO HAPPY
and SO TIRED!!!! haha
     I love you all and I miss you and I can't believe that I have
less than 9 months left! That is so weird! It is going by so fast and
yet not all at the same time! Have a Happy November! I will be
catching up on letter writing soon, I promise! :)

Congratulations!!!

Hello Family! (and everyone else) :)
     I have some very exciting news!!! I have been on my mission for 9
months this Thursday. Can you believe it??? I always thought that I
would never make it to this point because it seemed so far away, and
now it is actually here! I also have another announcement, I am
expecting a baby and she will arrive tomorrow on Halloween! She will
be premature by a day to my 9 month mark. haha! I got the "training
phone call"  from President Greer on Sunday night. I knew it was
coming but it wasn't real until I got the voicemail when Pres said ,
"Sister Brox, will you call me back as soon as you can please." I
called and he said that there were so many new missionaries coming in
so he and the Lord needed me to train a new missionary and that I
should get used to training because I will probably be doing it the
remainder of my mission. I said if the Lord wants me to train then I
will be happy to try my best!
          I am so NERVOUS!!!! I don't want to mess her up! haha! I am
terrified because I only get her for 3 months and she has to be ready
to train another sister after that, oh my goodness! lol BUT I am also
very excited and happy that the Lord and Pres Greer have the faith and
confidence in me that I will be able to do it. I know that I can do
anything I need to as long as I use the strength that the Lord gives
me.
       On another note, Sister Dilworth left me yesterday. :( major
sadness! But she is on her way home and she is excited to see her
family again and she was/is an amazing missionary so she has the
entire rest of her life to look forward to. I am just going to miss
her bunches!  I am hanging out with the other sisters in the 'Couve
until transfers tomorrow so that I am not alone. lol. An interesting
note though is that after Sister McGhie goes home next transfer in
December, I will only have one previous companion in the mission field
and she will be the greeny I get tomorrow! So Weird! Everyone is
leaving me haha!
        We did exchanges twice this last week. I went to work with the
Hermanas and the other Sisters in the area, two days in a row! It was
quite unusual to be away from home two nights in a row! I know that
the Lord sends us to the places we need to be at the exact right time.
I will fill you in more on this story some other time but first I need
to talk about something else.
      Sis. Dilworth left with a bang a huge bang! We had our stake
youth fireside Sunday night. Mother was confused about the origin of
this fireside so here it is and here are the results. During the
beginning of our 2nd transfer together, Sista D and I had the
inspiration to plan a youth fireside because the youth here and
apparently all over the world are on fire with the Gospel and
missionary work. We wanted to make it a tri-ward (our 2 and another)
fireside with the wards that meet in our building. We presented this
plan to our ward mission leaders and they said ok, lets present it to
the bishops, the bishops set a date and we went with it. It turned out
to be a bad day, so we tried again. We had building scheduling
conflicts and general and stake conference conflicts and choir
practice conflicts and other youth activities and school stuff and
everything that could go wrong was going wrong. We were talking to a
recent convert that has 2 teenagers that we are teaching and she said
that we HAD to make it work and we HAD to make it work on the stake
level because the youth NEED it! So we changed the location and date
again and started going through the chain of command till we were
talking to a member of the Stake Presidency.He talked to the Stake
President and we got the approval to go ahead. We asked all the
missionaries in the stake to participate and got speaker and youth
from every ward to participate. We got a member from the high council
to conduct and the member of the stake presidency to preside and we
even had President and Sister Hartley the 2nd counselor to Pres Greer
to come. It was all working out and we had the funds to buy the
refreshments (so don't worry I will be reimbursed for that). We had
such a hard time getting it advertised because of general and stake
conferences and lack of communication from fellow missionaries.We didn't
expect much more than 50 youth. We started Sunday night and were a
little panicked because we werent' sure how it was going to go. We
ended up having 214 youth there! The chapel was FULL! It was absolutely
amazing it was an hour and a half and we had only planned on it being
an hour but it was better than we ever expected it to be!
     I know that the Lord wanted this fireside to happen. I know that
He made it work. I know that the Spirit was there. I know that He is
in control and that if we do what He tells us to and try our very
hardest to make it work that He will pick up the slack if we can't do
it. I love my Savior and I am so grateful to be a member of His church
and have the blessing to share His restored gospel with the rest of my
brothers and sisters.
     I appreciate all the prayers that are sent my way, I couldn't do
this without them. Thank you for praying for the people and the
families that I/we are teaching. I know that it is helping. Please
keep them coming! I love you all and I miss you all! I will be back
home before we all know it! :) Have a wonderful week! Talk to you in
November! HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!!

So this is a picture of Samantha Roberts...She is part of the coolest
family ever! They are fully active in the church and everything, but
Sam just turned 8 and they wanted her to have the missionary lessons
before she was baptized. So we taught her the lessons and went to her
baptism on this past Saturday. Isn't she just gorgeous! The Roberts
family is so awesome and totally hilarious! They are always willing to
do anything for us. Sister Roberts is even a ward missionary. They
have three girls, Kaylee, Sam, and Clara...Clara just makes my heart
melt everytime I see her! I even had a dream about playing catch with
her...so funny! Anyway, I will send a picture of us and the whole
family next week hopefully! :)

No more sticky notes!

I want to thank everyone that has sent me sticky notes lately! I
have more sticky notes than I will need for the rest of my mission and
maybe even the rest of my life. lol So THANK YOU! But please don't
send me anymore or I won't have enough room to pack my clothes in my
suitcase the next time I get transferred. haha, OK maybe I exaggerate a
little, but seriously... I'm sure you get the point! :)
     Mother, Thank you for the Halloween package! Sister Dilworth and
I loved all the treats, costumes, and misc. items (especially the
boogers)! The skirts fit perfectly and we love them! We have both worn
them at least twice since we got them. :) Also, thank you for the list
of remaining pre-mission items in my box at home. Something to
consider is using the scrapbook paper for the letters that you send to
me. As well as sending the paperclips that are already in there in the
next package, those will last me the rest of the mission. Thank you
for the information that you sent and answering my questions. I am not
planning on any big purchases soon or later for that matter...I am
just still OCD about money and I want to make sure that I am not over
spending on anything that I do buy. I was able to buy a new pair of
shoes that I could NOT resist. They are dark purple peep toe heels.
Obviously I will not be wearing them to do missionary work but for
special occasions it will be nice to have heels again. My shoes are
looking more and more like missionary shoes, if you know what I mean.
haha! I am excited that they have last half my mission already and I
plan on making then last quite a while longer.
     I have been thinking about what to say for my memories about
Memaw and Papaw and I will write those down and send them so that it
won't take too much of my email time.
     I would love to have some current pictures of everyone and
everything. For example: School pictures; Professional pictures (if
they have been taken); random funnies; the new kitchen; etc. :) Thanks
       Mother, you also asked if it was hard for us to find the
Portland Temple when we went a couple weeks ago. The answer is no, it
was not difficult to get there, it was more difficult to get back!
haha! We do not drive ourselves to the temple because it is in
Portland which is out of our mission. So we have to find a ride. We
asked one of our most favorite people, Sister Lowe, to take us. She
printed off directions to the temple from mapquest and we got to the
temple just fine...We had a hard time for some reason reversing the
directions to get back but I knew pretty much how to get back because
I have served all over Vancouver now. So we got home just fine but in
a semi-round-about way.
      I am excited to be able to come back and tour the mission and be
able to know where I am going (for the most part). There are so many
people that I want to visit again and that I want you (mother and
daddy) to meet!
     One more quick thing before I run out of time...Is there anyway
that you can send me a ballot so that I can vote??? If there is
something that I have to do just let me know and I can ask Pres. Greer
for permission but if you can find all that out and send me something
that would be great! I would love to be able to vote and be an active
citizen even though I am a missionary.
       We had Zone Conference and Stake Conference this week so it was
a wonderfully Spiritual week as well. We both had migraines after Zone
Conference so that was not very pleasant but we learned a lot and had
a great time regardless. We won "the cleanest car" award...which makes
2 times in a row for me with 2 different cars and companions. Sister
McGhie and  I won last ZC. :) haha! I love clean cars!
     You should look up voodoo doughnuts online...they are amazing.
The Roberts gave us an entire box of them! YUMM!!!
     I gotta go! Miss you! I love you all! Have a great week! :) HUGS AND KISSES

Read All About the S Family

Good Morning! How was your week last week? Mine seemed to last
forever. I am so excited for all of the people we are teaching and I
wish I had time for me to give you all the details about every single
one of them, but I will settle by telling you only about the "S"
Family for now. (As I know it, all things are to be determined)...

The S Family consists of, the dad, the mom, the 10 almost 11 yr old,
and the baby, probably around 2 or so. They have a long story before
we ever began to teach them. Sister S's bro-in-law (who was not a
member of the church) committed suicide a year or so ago and our
bishop's wife knew the family and reached out with the relief society
sisters and provided meals and other things for the widow. Because of
their generosity the S Family was touched. Another influencing factor
was that some of Brother S's friends joined the church. The S's moved
into our area in December and were semi-recently looking for a church
in the area to start attending. They thought about these occurrences of
the LDS Church in their life and decided to look into it. Bro. S was
on Mormon.org and chatted with a Sister Missionary in the Kirtland
visitors center and was asking about where and how he would go about
attending our church on Sunday. She proceeded to contact us and tell
us to look out for this family at church and then tell her how it
goes. Well they didn't come to church that Sunday and we were sad
about that and the Sister in Kirtland couldn't give us any other
information about them so we were left in the dark with only our faith
to guide us in how to find this family searching for truth. A week
went by and at church on Sunday a note was passed from the bishop to
the ward mission leader and then to us telling us that there was a
non-member family in the over flow of the chapel and what they looked
like. IT WAS THEM!!! We were so excited to see that they actually
came.

When Sacrament Meeting was over before we could reach them, they were
surrounded and welcomed by the ward members. It was amazing to see. We
couldn't even get close to them so we waited and then by the time we
got our chance we could tell that they were overwhelmed and ready to
leave. We introduced ourselves and that was that...Then they came the
next week and the same thing happened. The amazing thing is that this
is a ward missionary moment. They have been friendshipping this family
like I have never seen before! Our ward mission leader went to their
house to get to know them and brought "the missionaries" to their
attention. They were glad to have us come over and explain some things
to them. We went and taught the Restoration to Bro. and Sis. S with a
member of the bishopric and his wife. It went great! Then we went back
again for the next lesson and it was just Sis. S and the oldest
daughter so we taught them again the 1st lesson. Then we went back
again and taught the Plan of Salvation and invited all three of them
to be baptized. Bro. S said that they would think about it and pray
about it and talk about it all the time until they saw us again. So we
said that was ok and we suggested that they pray about the date of
October 27th.

We went over yesterday and taught them The Doctrine of Christ and they
were the ones that actually brought up the invitation to baptism
again. They said that they needed to know more first because they
understand how important of a decision it is for the rest of their
lives. We agreed. They said that they would most likely get baptized
but not on that date. We said that it was good that they understood
how important of a step that it is and that we would love to continue
to teach them more. They agreed, so we will. Even though I was sad
that we couldn't get them on date to be baptized I promised them that
when they made that decision that they would know that it was right.
They are honestly seeking truth. They told us that Bro. S was watching
Pres. Monson speak in Gen Con and he came it and told Sis. S that it
made perfect sense to him that there would be a modern day prophet. It
was an almost overwhelming realization for him and he was so excited
to share it with his family. When we taught lesson 2 and we were
talking about the Spirit World he said, "This is what makes this plan
true to me." It is so exciting to see that different things always
seem to stick out to different people.

I love teaching this family because they are soaking up everything.
They look, talk, and act like members! They have some things to over
come (word of wisdom) but they have already started to try to live it
and we haven't even had the lesson on it yet. They are reading the
Book of Mormon and praying and researching and I just love it! They
said that they know that Joseph Smith saw God and Jesus and that they
never doubted it. I know that they have a testimony and all they have
to do now is act on it. :) I know that was a lot of information about
them but I couldn't help but to fill you in on this wonderful new
family that we are teaching.

I know that they Lord is preparing the hearts of people in this area
for us to find, teach, and baptize. We just have to keep doing our
part and trying our very best. I am so excited for the stake youth
fireside that Sister Dilworth and I have prepared. I know that we were
inspired to do this fireside at the exact right time and that Satan
doesn't want it to happen but we kept moving forward and now it is
really going to happen. I need to be better about going out of my
comfort zone in order to find new investigators. I am working on that.
:) I hope you all have a great week! I love you so much!

P.S. Shout out to Shada if you read this! Haha! See you later, my
friend! Hey, check it out: 2 Nephi 32: 8-9 ;)

Ask a Missionary

Hey everyone!

1. So who watched the Saturday morning session of General
Conference??? WASN"T THAT AMAZING!!! I was practically falling out on
my chair that entire session (and the rest of conference too of
course)! What does everyone think about the new missionary ages?
Crazy! But I am so excited because this means that a lot more work is
going to be done in building up the Kingdom of God! It is so exciting!
I also loved Elder Nelson's talk on missionary work! I hope everyone
heard it and if you didn't then you need to look it up and watch it or
read it! If you have any questions, ask a missionary, they can help
you! I love it! haha! Some of my other favorites were Elder Packer's
talk about the lower lights, and Elder Bednar's talk on testimony and
conversion. (Just to name a few) They were ALL amazing! I love
understanding now the importance of General Conference! I can't
believe how often I feel asleep before. I am upset with myself that I
missed so much! But that is the past and now I get to watch and enjoy
Gen Con for the rest of my life! :)

2. Anyway, so other then the amazing general conference we had when we
got to listen to our loving prophet, the apostles and the other
general authorities, we had the blessing of going to the temple today.
I am so totally exhausted from all the Spirit I have been feeling! I
absolutely love it! So I don't have too much time to write today but I
would love for everyone to send me a letter or an email an ask me a
question/s or just shoot me some of your take aways from conference! I
would love to hear them and the different view points on the topics
discussed.

3. We got to can MORE tomatoes this week....surprise surprise lol And we
cleaned lots of windows. This is probably the last week of sunshine so
the rain is about to hit. The trees are changing colors and it is the
most beautiful Autumn I have seen in my entire life! Gorgeous!

4. I love you all and I miss you and I love letter/cards *hint*

5. Have a great week!
I will send pictures next week! :)
--

8 Months!

 HEY! Can you believe it?? I've been gone for 8 months! It seems
unreal to me that it is October today! Wow! Next thing you know
Christmas will be here and gone and the new year will be upon us!
Craaaazy!
    So I spent a long time emailing President today, I have been
pretty scanty on my letter to him the past couple weeks. haha So this
week the letter home will be shorter. I guess I can't do both in the
same week.
      I was very appreciative of the opportunity I had to watch the
General Relief Society Broadcast this past Saturday. It was so
wonderful to hear from the newly sustained presidency. They are truly
called to be in those positions. I loved that they all focused their
thoughts on the Atonement of our Savior. It was very touching for all
the Sisters that we were able to talk to about it. We had an
investigator there as well and she really enjoyed it. I loved Pres.
Eyring's talk as well. I know that listening to the Spirit is so
important. Even though his thoughts were focused mainly on the
importance of Visting Teaching, I was thinking more along the lines of
missionary work. He related a story about his daughter and her VT
companion and how the other sister felt the need to go and visit her
companion even though they had no appointments set for the day. As a
result, lives were saved. I was thinking first about how my companions

can sense when I am having a hard day and they cheer me up. And I hope
and pray to still have that connection when the mission is completed.
Then I was thinking about all the times we have to rely on the Spirit
to show us where the Lord wants us during the day to day work. As a
result, souls are saved. I have never relied this much on the Spirit
till I came on my mission. And now I don't know what I would do with
out Him. I am so grateful that I have the blessing to have Him with me
constantly if I live the way I am commanded to. I love that He is part
of the Doctrine of Christ. I remember when I was serving in Walla
Walla and Elder Maynes came to visit for their Stake Conference and at
the adult session he spoke on the importance of the Holy Ghost. How
wonderful it is that two of the greatest gifts God has given us are
two of the members of the Godhead. I am eternally grateful for the
gift of my Savior and the Holy Spirit. I can't believe how hard it is
to explain and teach about him sometimes though. Some people just seem
to have a more difficult time recognizing His influence then others.
For example, one of our investigators has been taking the lessons for
years now and she studies the scriptures and the gospel principals
manual, she attends church at least twice a month, last week we
committed her to fast and pray for the answer, which we did with her.
We haven't had the chance to teach her again since then to follow up
and to be honest with you, I am nervous that she didn't the answer
that she was seeking. She seems to want a sign even though we have
read many scriptures and given examples and born testimony on the
still small voice. She understands and accepts and believes everything
except that Joseph Smith was a prophet. I know that this relys on a
testimony of the Book of Mormon and I feel like we have explained and
testified that fact to her. So pretty much what I am saying is that I
understand the role of the Holy Ghost in conversion, I just have a
hard time accepting the agency of others sometimes. haha!
     I am so excited for general conference this coming weekend! I
have developed a love for these very important 8 hours! We have been
given such a blessing to be able to hear from our beloved prophet and
apostles twice a year. I hope that everyone takes advantage of this
wonderful opportunity to listen to the words of the Lord given through
a living modern day prophet. A literal Moses or Noah or Abraham in our
day! Its so great!
     Next week we will be going to the temple in Portland so our p-day
will be changed to Tuesday instead. I am so excited to go to the
temple again. It seems too long to be able to go only once every three
months. I want to go all the time just to feel the peace and be taught
in the house of our God. I am excited to go with Sister Dilworth as
well. She's so cool! haha
     Well I gotta get going, time is up! I love you all and I miss you
and just keep on choosing the right. Keep praying and going to church
and reading the scriptures! Those are not just lazy answers! They are
true and they will increase your testimony! I expect a full report
about conference next week! haha! Keep praying for opportunities to
share the Gospel. Christ Lives! :)

Holy tomato

Howdy folks,
        Well this has been a week of service in the service! haha... I
have canned more in the past week then I have my entire life! Its
harvest season so everyone and their dog is canning it seems. We
canned tomatoes and peaches and more tomatoes! Holy Tomato there are a
lot of tomatoes! Along with canning we have been cleaning homes and
painting buildings. Needless to say, my arms are ridiculously sore!
haha!
        We also had transfers this week which meant pretty much
nothing to us because we didn't get transferred. But it has been nice
to stay with a companion for longer than just 6 weeks. It is great
working with Sister Dilworth because she is such a great teacher and
she is super smart (not that my other comps weren't) we just seem to
have a wonderful flow in teaching that I didn't really experience with
the others. We have quite a few miracles happening right now and I am
so excited for them!
       I realized that I haven't shared much about the people that we
are teaching so here are just a few of the miracles we get to witness.
         Miracle #1: We have been teaching a recent convert every week
before and after her baptism, which was a few months ago, and she
would not ever pray. The sisters had asked her in the past and she
refused. We eventually gave up on trying to force her and so we would
just be the ones to pray every time. We had our final lesson with her
this week and the only thing left that she didn't know was how to pray
out loud. She didn't want ANYONE to hear her pray. Not even her
husband, dog, us, anyone. We talked about the importance of prayer and
how we do it and why we do it that way and everything we could about
the topic of prayer with scriptures, testimonies and stories to back
up everything we said. Along with all of that, there was A LOT of
silence. I do not like silence!!!!! It was so hard for me. We finally
said that we would say a short prayer asking Heavenly Father to bless
her with strength and support to pray out loud with us. And then after
we were done with that prayer we would keep our heads bowed and our
arms folded and she would say a prayer. So that is exactly what we
did. Sister Dilworth said a short prayer and we stayed in that
position and waited, prayed in my head, and waited and prayed some
more.....about a minute and a half later of complete silence, Sister
S, started her first ever spoken prayer. I can not even describe to
you the feeling that I felt that instant when she addressed her Father
in Heaven. I had tears running off my nose by the time her simple but
fervent and heartfelt prayer was finished. I have never felt the
Spirit testify so strongly before that our God is truly mindful of
each and every one of us and that he really does hear and answer every
single one of our prayers. I hope and pray that I will never forget
that feeling.

 Miracle #2: We have been going over to another recent converts house and helping her a lot to clean up her home. She has a very hard time letting ANYONE in her home. She is a hoarder and she has kept the inside of her house hidden for decades. One of my first times over there about 7 weeks ago, she locked herself out of her house and Sis Dilworth had to climb in the back door to unlock the front door. That was the first time that any one had been in this Sister's home in years. Since then we have been able to go in to her home and help clean and organize and sort and throw away and take stuff out for a garage sale and this is a miracle. She is one of the sweetest lady's I have ever met. She is so embarrassed by her home and the way that she lives but there is nothing she can do about it. It is a mental health condition that she has had to deal with her entire life. It is so hard for me to see someone live the way she does. I am blessed to know that she trusts us enough to let us help her like this. She allowed some of the sisters before into one of the rooms that wasn't as bad to help her and they threw away things that she wanted to keep. She is so paranoid now that we will do the same thing that she looks at everything we put into a trash bag. And then before we leave and take the trash bag with us, she has to look through it again. It is so frustrating sometimes because I just want to tell her that everything in her house should just be thrown away because it is filthy and disease ridden, but at the same time it makes me so sad that I want to cry for her! Anyway.so being able to help her is a miracle.

Miracle #3: We have found quite a few new investigators and they are awesome!!!! I love seeing the changes that people are willing to make to bring themselves in closer harmony with the Lords teachings.

I am almost out of time now, and I need to go and write Pres Greer! I love you all so much and I am grateful for your endless prayers and support. They mean more to me than you will ever know! Have a wonderful week and I hope to hear from you again soon! Much love and many hugs! :)

-- SISTER MORGAN BROX

Pictures

For P-Day they went bowling and got mani/pedi's

We Remember...

      I hope everyone is having a good September 11th....I can't believe that it has been 11 years since the attacks on America. I know that the Lord has his hands in our lives and that those who died with clean hands and a pure heart were welcomed home with open arms, and that those who misused their agency are being taught about the truths of the Gospel.

       A little bit about this week....we finally had Sisters Training yesterday! It was GREAT!!!!!!! Oh my goodness it was sooooo good! AND I got a wonderful surprise from Mother that everyone was able to enjoy! Thank you SO much Mother for the birthday cake at the training! Even though it wasn't on my birthday after all it was still a celebration! We were taught by President and Sister Greer, by his counselor and his wife, President and Sister Stapleton, by two of our departing sisters, Sister Dilworth (yay) and Sister Hudson, and finally by the Assistants to the President, Elders Fenn and Tuttle. We learned so much that I can't even bring everything up that I want to. The finally thing that President talked about was how a brick wall wouldn't be strong at all if we didn't have the mortar/cement to keep it together. He said that we the sisters/women are the mortar/cement that will keep our families together. He told us that we have to stay strong in order for our families to stay strong. It was so touching to see him talk like that. You can see and sense how much love he has for Sister Greer and how much he loves each and everyone of us, his daughters. It was so much fun to be able to stay in their home Sunday night. The Spirit of the Lord just emits from the walls and the ceiling and the floor and everything in the home. It is so wonderful.

      I am almost out of time because I wrote a giant letter to President, so I am very sorry that I can't tell you more! I will tell you more next week and send pictures too! Just know how much I love you and I pray for you and that I miss you but this is exactly where I am supposed to be at this exact time. I want to THANK EVERYONE that sent me cards and packages and emails for my birthday! I really really appreciate it all! I will try to thank you all individually, but it might take a couple weeks. Transfer calls are coming up on Saturday and I can't believe how fast this transfer has gone by. I am super nervous as to what is going to happen. Big things are going down here in the WKM and it will be interesting to see what the Lord's plans are and how they are brought to pass.

Anyways, I love you again and I would love to get more letters...but if you could throw in an encouraging word for my companions sometimes too, that would be wonderful! Have a great week and look forward to a longer letter next week...hopefully! :)

Hola!

       Hey there! So how has everyone's week been? Mine has been
pretty good here in the WKM (Washington Kennewick Mission)!  We had a
lot of really great lessons and we had a lot of stuff to do. It was a
little difficult getting to our lessons this week though because we
were pretty low on our allotted mileage. We get a certain amount of
miles per month that we are allowed to drive and we were pretty low.
So we did A LOT of walking! haha...I got some blisters (again)! No big
deal...I will definitely be wearing holes into my shoes, which make me
feel pretty cool. I am so blessed to be serving here. All the sisters
in the mission in the WKM get cars. And its our own fault if we have
to walk because we didn't use our miles appropriately. But at the same
time, we like to walk because then the people that are driving can see
us outside doing our job, and it is easier to talk to people that are
outside in the yard or something. It definitely has perks and
disadvantages. But by Saturday we had all the miles we needed for the
brand new month and we have made a goal to walk more through out the
month so that we don't kill ourselves/our feet at the end. haha
            On Thursday we had exchanges with the Hermanas and I had
the honor of staying here in my area and Sister Dilworth went to their
area. I got to work with Hermana Southwick.She is such a sweetheart.
She is from St. George but grew up in Southern California and it
definitely shows in her personality. We had a great day and taught some
very spiritual lessons, it was awesome! We got along great!
             On Saturday we had exchanges with the other sisters in
the area. So in other words it was with my old area. Sister Brown was
in charge of setting it up and we were waiting for her to decide on
who was going where. I wanted to go over there just to see what has
happened to the area since I left it almost 5 weeks ago. But when the
final decision came to us I was to stay here and Sister Dilworth went
there to serve with Sister McGhie for the day. Sister Brown (who I
went on my very 1st ever exchange with) came to me in my area. We also
had a productive day. We spent the entire morning doing service for a
recent convert who is getting ready for a garage sale this coming
weekend. It was hard work. She had a lot of furniture that she wanted
moved out of her trailer. The hard part of it was that she has a
hoarding problem and that she normally doesn't let ANYONE into her
house. It was a very traumatic experience for her and we had to keep
telling her that we loved her and that it didn't matter what her house
looked like. It was quite the experience though for all of us. She
made a lot of progress while we were there and hopefully and
prayerfully this garage sale will be what she wants it to be. We also
had some great lessons that day as well.
        We have another recent convert here named Donavan who is so
totally awesome! She got baptized just a little over a year ago and he
is 20 yrs old. He has his wisdom teeth removed on Wednesday and then
he got his mission call on Thursday! Picture this....white guy,
skinny, slightly nerdy, dark thick hair....He is going to the Ghana
Accra Africa Mission, English Speaking! So weird haha but TOTALLY
AWESOME!!! He is so excited and he is going to be an amazing
missionary. We go and teach his Aunt and Uncle on a weekly basis and I
just love this family they are way to good to us and the treat us like
their own daughters. I look forward to keeping in touch with them even
after the mission.
          Yesterday on p-day we got up and did the usual stuff and
then we went BOWLING! and that was super fun. We went with 4 other
Elders and oddly enough it was the group of us that hates that the
others always only play basketball on p-day. So it was way nice to get
a break from that. After that we washed the car and then went to get
our mani/pedi's! It was SOOOOO nice....I have dark purple toes and
light purple fingers. Sister Dilworth has dark pink toes and light
pink fingers! The people weren't so nice and talkative but it was
GREAT nonetheless. Thank you JAKOB AND SARA!!!! :)
           After getting those done we went to the amazing Robert's
family home for their Labor day cook out. It was so much fun to just
relax and just EAT!!! It was so much food I thought I was going to
die! or throw up! or BOTH!  haha! Then of course we went and did our
real work and had an amazingly spiritual lesson!
             We taught the Doctrine of Christ to a less active man
with his fully active wife and we watched and awesome video of a
family that ends up being sealed in the temple...its called The Robles
Family...ask your missionaries if they have it and if you can see it!
Anyway we watched it with them and we asked him what he thought and he
said, "that is what I want more than anything in the world." It was so
sweet and so heartfelt! I wanted to start to bawl and all we could say
was that he is on the right path and that he will get there as he
strives to do so with the Lord's help. It was so great!
          We found out Sisters training has been postponed and that
makes me SUPER sad!!! but I will just have to work hard and then play
harder when the time comes for this amazing training! :)
           I WANT TO GIVE A SHOUT OUT FOR MY AMAZING NIECE CARA!!!
HAPPY 5TH BIRTHDAY SWEETHEART! I LOVE YOU SO MUCH!!!!!
           I hope you all have a wonderful week and I hope this email
finds you all well and happy! The doctrine of Christ is so true and I
love my Savior and my Father in Heaven so much! I love you all and I
will talk to you next week!

P.S. We are supposed to come up with questions for Pres.Greer for
sister's training...anything you wanna know about...write me a letter
and I will try to ask it to him! ;) Love you!

7 Months on Saturday

Hey Everybody!!! Can you believe that I have almost been gone
for 7 months!? That is crazy! I feel like my time keeps moving but
that everyone around me stands still in time. I am not quite sure why
I feel this way but regardless of the reason, I know it is not true.
Time is moving outside of mission life just as much as it is moving in
mission life. I 'm not sure if that statement made sense but just go
with it..haha! I have found that when I teach I LOVE to use analogies.
Its easier for people to relate to when they can liken it to something
in their normal everyday lives. Sometimes,I 'm sorry to say but my
analogies don't make sense...I explain it the way it comes to my mind
and sometimes it comes out perfectly and they understand what I am
trying to say and sometimes it comes out kinda crazy so I find myself
saying, "Just go with me on it, Ok?" and everyone laughs and tries to
keep up with my crazy teaching style. Most of the time, even if the
analogy starts off kinda silly it ends up making sense with the help
of the Spirit.
      This week was pretty awesome! It started off pretty rough, we
had teaching appts and they fell through and none of our back up plans
worked out so we were a little bit frustrated and we didn't know where
the Lord wanted us to be. We made it to Wednesday and we had
interviews with President and Sister Greer. I was fine and excited all
week for this to happen and then right when we got to the church to go
in for the interviews I started to get nervous. I am not sure why, BUT
the second I started to talk to Sister Greer everything turned around
and I was able to tell her all of my concerns about the area and how
hard Sister Dilworth and I had been working but nothing was working
out. So she boosted my spirits and then it was time for me to go and
talk to President. He is so inspired! He told me that there were going
to be a lot of new sisters coming into the mission soon and that there
was a big possibility that I would be training soon. He pretty much
said don't hold your breath but don't be surprised when you get the
"training call." I am so nervous! I have always known that I would
train a new missionary someday and that would be fine with me, I just
pray that I wouldn't mess her up too bad. But at the same time....this
area is not a good area, in my opinion, to train someone in! So I hope
and pray that the Lord takes my thoughts into consideration and puts
my mind at ease what ever happens in the next couple of transfers.
                After interviews on Wednesday we had a whole day of
appts set and almost all of them held! The ones that didn't hold we
were able to go to our backups and they were successful. We were on
such a Spiritual high by the end of the day is was amazing and we were
exhausted! Thursday was an awesome day and we ended up getting 2 new
investigators and then the rest of the week was full of lessons and
appts! It was so exciting! I love teaching lessons! I love answering
people questions on the Gospel. Sunday Sister Dilworth and I split up
for church so that one of us could attend Ward Council in one ward
while the other went to all 3 hours of the other ward, which never
happens. Since I am still pretty new to the area I was not totally
comfortable going to ward council with this particular ward yet by
myself, so Sis Dilworth went and I went to the other ward. It was so
awesome to be able to divide and conquer!  But on the other
hand it felt super weird to not have Sis Dilworth within sight and
sound the whole time! We were able to accomplish a lot by the time we
got back together after the second Sacrament meeting!
          We had a meeting right after church with all of the ward
missionaries and one of them brought their daughter who is one of our
investigators! So after we were done with the meeting we taught her a
lesson and she is so close to being baptized! She is 13 but wants to
wait till she is 14 so that she can be a mia maid when she gets
baptized. So it will have to wait till October for her to be baptized
but that is ok, because we don't want to push her into anything, even
though we know she is ready! :) More to come on this story later
because there are MIRACLES happening with this family! I love them so
much!
           I am not sure what else to write about though, so I will
close and go write a letter to President and hopefully send a couple
pics of Sis Dilworth and I acting silly and such! I love you all so
much and I miss you! I look forward to hearing from you! Next week I
will not be writing till Tuesday because it is Labor day and the
library will be closed, so don' t be worried! There will be a lot to
talk about next week too, because we are doing exchanges twice this
week! woo hoo! The gospel it true!  (That rhymes)! =)
r

Keep It Moving

Hey everybody! So this week has been interesting and not
interesting all at the same time! haha I was so excited to be coming
to this area to serve and to work with Sister Dilworth! Well if it
weren't for Sister Dilworth I would not be such a happy camper...This
is a very hard area to work in! But we have a lot of faith that we can
make this area stronger by finding more people to teach! The members
here go on vacation a lot and I feel like I am serving my mission in
Utah or something now. We drive down the streets and Sis Dilworth
points to the houses that have members living there and then other
streets that she has already tracted. Its hard with out referrals from
the ward members. I love it when people understand that our job as
missionaries is to teach the people that they find. I'm not saying that
we aren't going out and doing our part of finding but it will be a lot
better use of time if the ward found the people that are ready for the
Gospel. Ok, I will step off my soap box for a second. haha!

      We have some people that we are working with and I am very
excited about them! There is a recent convert that we see quite often
and her husband and son and daughter are not members but will be soon
(fingers crossed)! I love working with their family! They are so ready
for the good change that the gospel brings to peoples lives! We are
also working with another recent convert who has VERY LOW self-esteem!
It hurts me to hear the things she says about herself and we have been
trying to think of ways that we can get her to know that she is good
at things. So we decided to try to get her in to family history. We
took her to the Family History Library in the stake center and she
LOVED it! She was able to find out things about her family that she
had no idea about and she was excited! Hopefully, she will go back
again and keep working on it and as a result know that she is doing
good for her family!

       I love working with Sister Dilworth! She is so funny! We laugh
all the time and we both like to work hard! She is excited to have a
companion that hasn't been in this area before and that can work as
hard as she does. Its good to have a fresh perspective and be able to
help her as we both struggle in this area. This area is funny because
for some reason Sisters leave and then get sent back...For example:
Sister Dilworth came back, Sister Cooper, and Sister Lush all left and
returned to the area! I hope that I can knock this area out and not
have to worry about coming back! haha, I know that is terrible to say
but I feel like they could use a good kick in the booty and get some
Elders in here! Everything is speculation and transfers are still 4
weeks away so we shall see...

 

      Something that I am SUPER excited about and gives me hope is
Sisters Training! I can't wait! Its on my birthday and we get to have
a sleep over at President and Sister Greer's house because we live so
far away! I just think about it and I want to jump up and down! haha!
So I love getting mail and I am so happy when I get it and I
am grateful to everyone that write me. I am very sorry to say that I
am terrible at writing back and I will try to get better at it.
Please don't stop writing just because I don't respond. I promise I
will write back (eventually)!

             Anyways, I want to close with the simple statement that I know
that my Savior lives and He loves everyone of us more than anyone
could ever comprehend in this part of our journey! I love you all and
I hope time is passing for you as fast as it is passing for me! Have a
wonderful week and keep praying for opportunities to share the Gospel!

 Morgan and the former Zone Leaders Elders Lim and Joslin

 Sister Faamau

 Sister McGhie

 Sister Dilworth

    

Don't Forget to Pray

Hello family and friends, this week has been one for the record books! It started off great! Sister McGhie and I finished our companionship in our area. It was weird though because after I found out that I was going to be transferred, my mind switched gears and I started to think about the new area and how I could help it become stronger. I had been thinking for the past few days that I had completed the task I was supposed to in that area and it was time to move on. It was hard to stay concentrated on the work at hand. I was excited on Wednesday to go to my new area with Sister Dilworth. I am so glad to be working with her, she is such an awesome missionary and we are getting along wonderfully! She is a hard worker! She only has this transfer and one more left so we hope that I will be the one that "kills" her or sends her home (in nicer words). She has served here and left and then got sent back. She must have unfinished business here or something. This area is struggling big time! We have a few investigators but no one real solid. I feel like I am serving in Utah or something because we drive through some of the neighborhoods here and she points to each house and says, "member, member, member, nonmember/not interested, member..." You get the point??? haha! So its hard to find anyone to teach because mostly every door has been knocked on and Sister Dilworth was the one that knocked on it, lol! So our goal for this transfer and hopefully next transfer is to see miracles and to build the area stronger than it has ever been before! This week is already looking more promising than last week!

Also something super exciting that happened this week is...drum roll please....... ROBBY GOT BAPTIZED! And I was able to go to it and give the talk on baptism! It was so exciting! I used to be scared to talk in front of people but I had absolutely no fear when I was up there! I talked about what I know to be true! I talked about these 6 questions: Who gets baptized? What is baptism? When are we baptized? Where are we baptized? Why are we baptized? and How are we baptized? I love the answers to these questions because it sums up everything that we teach to everyone! The answers are: Everyone even Jesus needs to be baptized! Baptism is a covenant or a two way promise that we make with our Father in Heaven and our Savior Jesus Christ. We promise to take upon ourselves the name of Christ and always remember him and keep his commandments. In return we are promised to be cleansed from sin, be spiritually reborn and receive the gift of the Holy Ghost to be with us at all times if we will only do our part to keep him with us. We are baptized when we reach the age to know right from wrong which has been revealed to be 8 years old. Or we are baptized when we have received a witness from the Holy Ghost that what we have been taught is true and we have repented of what we have done wrong. We are baptized into the restored church of Jesus Christ because of the Priesthood authority found therein. Jesus himself knew the importance of the priesthood and that is why He himself went to John the Baptist to be baptized of him. John holds that authority to act in God's name here on the Earth. The power of the Priesthood is so real and vital to the covenants we make here on Earth. We are baptized because it is a commandment and it is necessary in order to be numbered among the Lords people and to be welcomed into life eternal to live forever in the presence of our God, clean and pure. Baptism is done by immersion to symbolize the death, burial, and Resurrection of Christ. As well as the death of our old lives and our rebirth into a life centered on our Savior. I loved having the opportunity to talk at Robby's baptism. Even though it was just a small gathering the Spirit was so strong and we felt the presence of God our loving Heavenly Father and his son Jesus Christ.

 I am so happy to be on a mission and sharing the Gospel. Yesterday in Relief Society we had a lesson on member missionaries and why everyone who knows the truth has the responsibility to share it! It was awesome to hear the reasons why everyone has the desire to share it. We made 2 lists on the chalk board, one was of why the world needs the gospel and the other was what we treasure most about the gospel. Surprisingly the lists were different. We discussed why they were different and why the should be almost the same. We need to share what we hold the most precious to us because it is what will connect others to the gospel as well. I loved this lesson because it made me as well as many others come to realize something important. For example for me on the second list someone had mentioned Eternal Families was what was most precious to them and I had been thinking that the entire time. But I realized that the reason I am sharing the gospel, the reason I am on a mission, is because I want everyone to have the same happiness in their families that I have in mine! I want everyone to be with their families forever! I have a lot of work to do but it helps me to work harder when I remember my family back home and the support and encouragement that y'all give me. So thank you! I love you and this is such a special time for ALL of us! I hope you can see the blessings in your lives because I can definitely see them in mine!

I have to go now, so that I can attach some pictures and write President Greer! Please keep Elder and Sister Garrett in your prayers, they were in a very terrible car accident last week and both have multiple injuries. Thank you for all the prayers and encouragement! I love you and I pray for you all daily! Keep up the good work! The church is true and Christ LIVES!

 All the sisters in the Vancouver area eating frozen yogurt.

 Mountain View Bishop Hardy and family.

Morgan and Sister McGhie

6 Months and Transfers

Oh my gracious! Can you believe that I have been gone for 6 months already!? Crazy, huh? So we had an exciting week! Here you go: All the sisters in Vancouver got together on Friday and had Frozen yogurt and then went to the stake center to "fly" Hermana Watson home! It was so much fun! As far as we know this was the first time that it has been done for a sister! Usually the Elders do it but since there are so few sisters around its never been safe. We had 2 companionships and a tripanionship so it was possible and since Sister McGhie and I cover all of Van cuz of the YSA and the Hermanas cover all of Van cuz of Spanish we were able to do it with out breaking any rules and during lunch time! I recorded it but I can't send videos so you will have to wait for a year to see it! haha! On a more Spiritual note we had 3 people that we are teaching at church yesterday! I was SO excited I could hardly breathe! It was a perfect testimony meeting too...no silent moments and no crazy stories that missionaries are always scared of people sharing when there are investigators there..haha! The Sunday school lesson and RS lessons were perfect as well! I couldn't have planned it any better myself, good thing its never up to me! The YSA had a huge regional conference this weekend so we were able to go to all 3 hours of mountain view ward this week, instead of just sacrament meeting! I was so excited for that too! We got transfer calls and I am getting transfers to Vancouver East stake to serve in the Lacamas Creek and Harmony Wards! I will be serving with Sister Dilworth and I am so excited! I love Sister Dilworth and she and I get along very well! Sister Chatwin half trained her so that makes Sister Dilworth my half sister in mission family terminology. lol. I am also very sad to be leaving these wards! I worked so hard to get this area stronger and I think that I had much success but none of it could have happened with out the Lord and the Holy Ghost. My goal was to leave the area stronger than how I found it and I feel like I accomplished that goal. We have 2 people on date to get baptized and quite a few progressing investigators and others! I hopefully will be able to come back over to the area when Robby gets baptized on Saturday night, I was asked to give the talk on Baptism and it is a private baptism so its by invitation only and I got an invite! I love that family! We picked fresh peaches today and I was excited about that too! I forgot to send pictures of that so I will attach some and send this email! I am finally starting to get my letters that were sent back home and back to me again! Don't worry about the transfer messing things up, they have the correct address for where I am moving to. Its a mansion like the one it Twilight! I will be sure to take pictures! ;) I love you all so much and I hope this email finds you all well and safe and happy, just like me! Keep reading the Book of Mormon, it brings joy beyond compare...look for the Doctrine of Christ in it: Faith, Repentance, Baptism, Gift of the Holy Ghost and Enduring to the End...You might be surprised how many time you find these 5 things in the scriptures!