Hey Everybody! So to explain the reasoning behind the title of
this email is that I have been a very bad missionary because I have
not been good on keeping up with my journal and I am disappointed in
myself for it! I was given small tidbits of advice from many people
before my mission and something that most people said was to make sure
that I kept up on my journal, and well I was great at it in the MTC
and most of my first transfer and then I just stopped writing...I
didn't write from April 1st till April 26. On that day I decided that
I would stop being lazy and to start my journal again! I have been
good at it for the past 4 days and I WILL be better at it the rest of
my mission! I just have to remind myself that they don't always have
to be 5 or more pages long! haha! I know how important it is to keep a
record of my daily life. Heavenly Father has taught that keeping
records is important to him, otherwise why would he require the
prophets to write down their prophecies or why would he command Nephi
and his brothers to return to Jerusalem after they had already left,
or why would Moroni bury the gold plates in the hill Cumorah if they
were not important. My journals may not be meant to teach nations
about Christ and Heavenly Father and the Atonement and the Gospel but
I hope that they will be of benefit to me and/or my posterity someday.
Moving on: This week has been full of fun! Haha! We got a whole
bunch of lessons and visits in during the first couple days of the
week and then we didn't really have anything to do on Thursday so we
decided to go out and visit some of the Elderly sisters in the ward
that live in nursing homes or assisted living centers. We met a Sister
Helga Piver. She is 75 and she is on permanent dialysis. So she has to
live in the center because she has treatment on Mon, Wed, and Fri
every week. She was born and raised in Berlin Germany and moved to
America when she was 21. She has a very very thick accent still and
she was so much fun to talk to and get to know. Her roommate was
asleep when we got there and through most of our visit. Then she woke
up and started to sit up. Helga looked at us and said, "Don't let her
kiss you!" and we were like, "okay." Margie, Helga's roommate, got up
and walked straight to Sister Chatwin and tried to give her a kiss!
haha it was so funny and cute. Sister Chatwin did was Helga said and
didn't let Margie kiss her but just gave her a hug instead. Margie has
Alzheimer's and never said a word to us except....as she was moving
away from Sister Chatwins arms she leaned back in really close and
said with a very distraught face, "I gotta pee!" So we escorted her
very quickly to her bathroom. We sat back down with Helga and chatted
then Margie came back out of the bathroom. She was trying to make it
back to her bed so we helped her along and she gave Sister Chatwin
another hug, (Helga said Chatwin looks like a family member).
Apparently Margie wanted to go roam the halls so we gave her her
walker and when she saw it she said, "well hello there" and she was
off, around the corner and down the hall! It was so funny, kind of sad
at the same time. Helga said that there is really only one other
person in the entire place that had a sound mind and that when Helga
tries to talk to her she doesn't really want to because Helga "talks
to much about Germany and that she doesn't like Germans." Helga said
that she tries to not talk about Germany but that is where a lot of
her life happened so its hard for her not to. Helga was very excited
that we were there and is even more excited that we said we would come
back and visit her this week.
After we saw Helga we went to meet a referral that a member of
the ward gave us. Brother Faaumu was baptized a little over a year ago
and was recently able to go through the Temple. He and his wife share
a car so he does a lot of walking around while she has the car at
work. He is from Samoa and is a very very nice guy so he talks to
anyone and everyone! He told us about this really nice old lady named
Mary that he met that we should go and talk to. We said ok and so that
is where we were headed after Helga. We knocked on Mary's door and she
immediately let us in. It didn't take us long to figure out that Mary
was a few french fries short of a happy meal. (As Sister Chatwin would
say!) Mary was very nice BUT she definitely has an extreme case of
Alzheimer's or just insane. We visited Mary for about 20 minutes and we
had the same 7 sentences/thoughts repeated over and over again. She
had a bowl of baby carrots on the table and she would take a bite of
one and chop her teeth at us and say, "I just washed these up and chew
them up and they are good for my teeth! They don't have to be cooked
or nothing! Have you ever had them like this before?" We would say
"yes" and then she would say, "REALLY?!? Then I'm not crazy!" She also
liked to talk about 2 notes that she had on the wall by her telephone,
her dog named "penny or billy" the dogs tag said, "Matilda", she liked
that Sister Lush wore glasses just like she did and that we all had on
watches like her. She LOVES to sing, she sang Ave Maria for us a
couple times and I was scared that she might bite me if I got to close
while she was singing...She also talked a lot about how she was from
St John's Newfoundland Canada and when she asked me where I was from
and I said Oklahoma she said, "Oh that's where I'm from, Its right by
St. Johns Newfoundland Canada!" I really appreciated the opportunity I
had to meet Mary M. Bull...Her name was written on a pad of paper and
I asked her what the M stood for, She said, "I don't know its just
always been that way." There was one point that Sister Chatwin and I
could no long control our laughter and we laughed so hard that we had
tears running down our cheeks! I wish I could have recorded that 20
minutes of my life! Anyways, we left Mary's house and went to give
Brother Faaumu a report and told him that unfortunately we would not be
able to teach Mary about the Gospel but that she would get her
opportunity to hear about the Gospel in the spirit world.
My time is almost up! Craziness! On Saturday we went up to Dayton
(an hour or so I think east of Walla Walla) to a service project for
our stake and two other stakes. The church owns a camp ground there
called Teancum Timbers and we were getting it all cleaned up and ready
for the coming summer of girls camps and scouting trips. It was a lot
of fun. The YSAs were in charge of blazing a new trail up one of the
hills/mountains. We three followed behind them making the path wider
and more walkable. While I was doing it I felt like Heidi in the Alps!
haha Its definitely not like any camp grounds back at home! I will try
to include some pictures from that fun day. We were all muddy, tired,
and sore! I got a big splinter in my hand which was a lot of fun! I am
finally able to stand up and sit down without wincing!
Sunday/yesterday was great! The talks and the lessons were all
amazing and we had quite a few less actives that we teach and some
recent converts and an investigator there! It was wonderful! But even
with all the wonderfulness it was so hard to stay awake because we
were so tired from the day before!
I need to get going, but I love you all and I miss you and I love
hearing from you! Keep up the good work and pray for missionary
opportunities as well as people that you know that are ready to hear
the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The missionaries in your area need more
people to teach, I can promise you that! Hugs and Kisses! See you
soon! Love you! The Church is True!
Sister Morgan Brox
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