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!