March 31, 2015 THE FINAL POST!

Hello Hello.

"I'm comin' home, comin' home, tell the world I'm comin' home!" Ahhhhhh! It is so weird. I am like 12 hours away from boarding a plane and it still doesn't really feel real. It is kinda weird. Okay, you all know I am an over organizer and planner, so I would assume you are probably all thinking that my bags have been packed for a week. Well, they aren't. In fact... Not even close. My companion and I have to be completely moved out our apartment in 3 hours. We have to have it cleaned as well, because no one is going to be living there for 6 weeks. It should be a fun mad dash to the end. Hopefully procrastination won't bite me in the bootie haha.

Sister Strong cut my hair this week. I am so excited for you guys to see it. Did the member in my ward send you a picture? She said she was going to. Looks like I am taking after my momma! Short hair!!!!!!! I was really hesitant to do it, but my companion just graduated from hair school and told me that I needed short hair. After 10 weeks. I finally caved. I am not sure how I feel about it. Mom... we might be going to get extensions tomorrow haha

Well this week... I have tried to work harder than ever, so I could go out with a bang! It was a great week! We were able to teach our investigator E. She is a foreign exchange student from Thailand. I have been really nervous about teaching her because I have never taught someone without a Christian  background. Well, we had a follow up lesson about deity an she had been praying all week. It was so cool for her to grasp the concept on God, Christ and the Holy Ghost. We were able to teach her about prophets on Sunday. It was incredible. The spirit was so strong. The Holy Ghost totally taught the whole lesson. I have no idea what I was saying. The words she needed to hear where just coming out of my mouth. It was so cool! She is so excited to listen to General Conference this week to hear what the prophet has to say to us.

We were also able to pick up another investigator named, O. She is a freshman in high school and we teach her at the seminary building across from the high school during her lunch break. We were able to teach her about God, Christ and Spirit and the roles they play in our life. I love teaching about our Father in Heavens love for us. It is the best. It available to all!

This week we were able to help out at the Nature Center. On Wednesday they had us hike out three miles on a trail then pick up these GIANT 2 x 6's and carry them another mile to go and help build a boardwalk. It was tough work. The trail was icy and boards were heavy. I kinda felt like a pioneer towards the end of the trail. The place where they were building the boardwalk was absolutely gorgeous! Oh man! Wait until you see the pictures. I am really going to miss the beauty of Alaska!

Well, we have been helping the Senior couple in this area teach a guy named B Morrison. Pretty cool right? Well, this weekend another Morrison entered the waters on baptism. At his baptism he just kept saying how light he felt. The Atonement in real. At baptism we are truly forgiven of our sins. We have the opportunity to renew that covenant with our Father in Heaven each week. I am so grateful for B's decision to be baptized! :) Nothing better than seeing people come closer to the Savior.

In my setting apart blessing to become a missionary it said that I needed to "Cherish Everyday". That is something that I have really tried to do. Everyone at some point in their mission has struggles and everyone amazing times. I know that as I have tried to cherish everyday that my life has completely changed. Never before did I realize that Heavenly Father loves each of his children. That is you and me and everyone that ever has and ever will live. He sent is son, Jesus Christ to atone for us, each and every single one of us so that we would have someone to turn to, someone to be our greatest support. I have learn to recognize the promptings of the spirit. It has been amazing. I have seen countless miracles and people's lives changed because of this gospel. I have loved being a missionary.

Well, I love you all! I will see you all so soon. Can you believe it? Time sure has flown by. I will probably be a blubbering mess when you see me next.. and the poor stake president tomorrow night. I think he is going to have me kicking and screaming when he asks me to take of this name tag. Little does he know the name tag has been stamped into my heart forever. I cannot wait to be a member missionary wherever the Lord calls me to go. Okay...enough with the sappy stuff. See you tomorrow!

Sister Morrison

P.S. I am going to be one tired cookie. I will be running on 28 hours of no sleep when you see me next. LOVE YOU!

One last beautiful scene from Alaska

Carrying the boards for the nature walk

B's Baptism!

Sister Morrison and her zone at Echo Park

March 23, 2015

Hiiiiii!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Lets just say my fingers are shaking. I am literally freaking out about the rest of my life and seeing you all.. for heavens sake... what am I going to talk about? I am so awkward and weird and I am frankly just flat our tired. I am just a mess. Get ready for crazy Sister Morrison. My poor companion this next week. That is all I have to say. I am ready to work harder than I ever have. This is the final countdown! ahhhh

Okay, enough drama. Here is what happened this week. Well, I have one word for ya'll TRACTING! We sadly ran out of work to do :( I am honestly grateful that we ran out this close to the end ya know? So, this week we knocked hundreds of doors! It was okayish. We did have a little success. So.. that is happy. We had one cute little pregnant lady tell us that we can come back this week. Let's home for one last amazing miracle in this area.

We have a foreign exchange student from Thailand living with a family in our ward. The family asked us to start teaching her. Mainly just to inform her about the gospel. I didn't realize how hard it is to teach someone if they don't know or understand who God is. We were able to teach her about the Godhead this weekend. It was quite challenging, but the spirit was totally there. She is now praying everyday.

Also, there is a lady in our ward that has been working with some of her friends to share the gospel. A few weeks ago we taught her the Plan of Salvation. Yesterday we had a follow up with her. She really loved the Adam and Eve perspective that we have. Hopefully, things will continue to progress with her.

Anyone ready for the biggest miracle ever?! So the Ks called me on Saturday and said the family was in town and they wanted to take Sister Strong and I out to dessert. They were planning on surprising me at church the next day, but V had a work project come up so they couldn't. You guys! I got to see the Ks again! I guess they drove all the way up from Soldotna (3 hours) just to say goodbye. I love them so much. They have literally made my mission. It has been so fun to see their family progress. They are planning on going through the temple to be sealed in 3 months! Oh man! The gospel is true happiness!

Oh we found out what is happening to our ward after we leave. Sister Strong is going to Wasilla to be with Sister Dall and Sister Wright, and a Senior couple is replacing us. Looks like this week is going to bring a lot of organization and form filling out and notes.

Well, I hope all is well! I will see you all in just a few day....weird. Remember to preach the gospel. On Sunday check out the churches new Easter video at helives.mormon.org :) #becauseofhim on your social media.

love love love love you!

Sister Morrison

Free cones from Dairy Queen!

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Star Wars street tracting

Sister Morrison got to see the K family one last time!

March 16, 2015

Hello everyone,

Well, I think these emails are getting harder and harder to write out. I am so sorry if this one ends up being short. I just feel like... why write a long letter when I can talk to you about it in like a few days. Life on a mission gets really tough when you approach the end. Satan likes to make you feel like you haven't done enough, even though you have spent every ounce of energy trying to be the hardest working missionary out there. You also have all of these weird dreams about the future. I am not digging it. You also get all nervous and excited and you feel pretty much every emotion in the book. Oh.. I forgot to mention. Your tear ducts really decide to open up. I feel like I cry any time I feel the spirit, and as a missionary that is like always. Don't worry. It is tears of joy.

Well, to be honest this has been one of the most frustrating weeks on a mission. This week was spring break and since our ward is super rich literally everyone in our ward boundaries went on a vacation. Literally no one was home. Oh it was so hard to see people. Anyways, so sorry for complaining.

On the bright side... I learned how to lay hard wood floors this week. I think we can add that one to the resume, right? We helped a young single adult do it. It was a lot of fun and a lot of work. Speaking of a lot of work. We volunteer at a Nature Center. When it snows people put gravel down so it is not super slippery. Well, now that all of the snow is pretty much gone the gravel needed to be removed from the parking lot. The park rangers gave us five brooms, some shovels and some sand bags. We swept the entire parking lot and bagged all of the gravel. It was an adventure! Speaking of adventures. This week Sister Strong and I cleaned a hoarders house. Boy o boy. I cannot say much more other than the fact that we got a 4x4 foot square cleared. That is improvement right?

Well, this week we had interviews with the mission president. It was weird thinking that was the last one before my exit interview in about a week or so. The interview this week was all about the future. Nothing really about it had to do with missionary work. That was pretty awkward, oh well!

Well, D, The lady I met at the DMV. We called her this week and she wanted to come to church. Sadly, yesterday she was a no show at church, but there is always next week. Hopefully, we can start actually teaching her this week.

We did have an awesome lesson with a part member family. The husband is a non-member. We had an awesome lesson about God's love. The spirit was so strong :) He even started to cry. I love when people feel the spirit! It is the best :)

Well, I think that is all I have for this week. I hope you are all doing well! I love you! Look for opportunities to share what you know to be true. It will 100% change your life.

Sister Morrison

Sweeping the parking lot with the zone

March 9, 2015

Hello hello!

Pretty much the saddest thing ever happened this week. I got my trunky papers in the mail. Trunky papers are a letter from the mission president thanking you for your service in the mission and inviting you to have a departing missionary interview with him. It also includes your flight itinerary and luggage rules. Oh man. It was just so sad. I cannot believe these amazing 18 months are coming to and end.

This week I attended my last transfer meeting since I am leaving half way though this transfer. Man that was sad too. I got to hang out with Sister Dall all day, so that made me super happy. Normally departing missionaries have to bear their testimonies on how their mission brought them closer to the Savior. Thankfully, I dodged the bullet and didn't have to. Not that my mission hasn't brought me closer to the Savior, but I would have been a blubbering mess up there guaranteed. I just saved the mission a few dollars on the tissues that I would have used up at the stand. I have always known that I mission would help me progress spiritually, but I had no idea it would impact me this much. I would not change it for the world. I have come to truly love this gospel, my Savior and my Father in Heaven! It's the best. Okay, sorry for going sappy. All of these crazy emotions are going through me right now. I feel like it happens to most missionaries.

Okay, for the bad news first.. our only investigator A dropped us this week. I seriously wanted to cry. I felt like she was so prepared, but sadly Satan got to her and told her that she didn't need it in her life right now. Oh so sad. Hopefully, we can maintain friendship with her and she will become interested down the road.

Okay, now for the good news. Sister Strong had to go and get her license this week. While she was taking her test I was sitting surrounded by tons of people. I looked at all of them and with a super strong act of faith I decided that I was going to make one of them my investigators. Boy oh boy did that happen. I started talking to everyone and finally this lady D started talking back. Turns out she has read the Book of Mormon and went to church last Sunday down in Soldotna. We started talking about family history. I invited her to come with us to the family history center with us. She happily agreed. This week we will set something up. At the end of our conversation she said, "I know God brought us together today." I was grateful for the courage that I had to talk with everyone. When you show the Lord and act of faith he will shower blessings upon you :) I love miracles!

This week I have felt very strongly to boldly invite people to repent and come back to church. It has been incredible. I have really come to realize the power that we have missionaries. When you boldly invite with love and by the spirit amazing things start to take change in people's lives. I had an impression one night at dinner that someone was being prepared to accept the gospel and that if this family would pray about who they should invite to attend church they would find that person. I told them the prompting that I had and invited them to act upon it. The room went silent and they all started to cry. They accepted the invitation. I am excited to see who the Lord has prepared. Oh how I love feeling the spirit.

This week we challenged three different less actives to read the Book of Mormon. They all accepted the invitation. I love seeing people's lives change as they read the Book of Mormon. I am excited to see the progression that they make over the next few weeks.

Well! This week has been good! Hope you all had a great week :) Look for opportunities to share the gospel :) If you find them, they will help your testimony grow stronger than you ever thought it could!

Love you all!

Sister Morrison

Sister Strong, Morrison and Dall

All the the Elders that Sister Morrison came to Alaska with

Sister Dall and Morrison

Sister Morrison got her trunky letter

March 2, 2015

Hello family and friends!

This week started out great. There is a little girl in ward that is about to be baptized. Her family asked us to come over and share with her what is means to be baptized. Oh man do I love teaching 7 year olds. It is so much fun! They just light up about the gospel as you teach them.

Sadly, we have not been able to meet with our investigators the P's. They have just been super busy. Hopefully, we can meet with them sometime this week :)

This week our ward asked us to help with Mutual night. At mutual they all came up with questions that people ask them at school about the church. We then taught them different ways to find the answers. They then all presented their answers. Okay, I know this probably sounds super boring, but it was awesome. The girls totally got into it and loved it. There were even two non-members there! They were able to get lots of questions answered. We even were able to give them our phone number and told them how we teach people about the church. They happily took it and were excited to come to mutual next week.

This week I felt super inspired to go to a less actives home. The lesson was pretty normal and at the end of the lesson the husband looked at us and said.. what brought you here tonight? We said the spirit. He then went on to explain that the week had been one of the worst he had ever had and how he just needed some spiritual uplifting help. Man! Isn't it the best to be in the right place at the right time! I love being able to follow the spirit.

We were able to help paint an old man house this week. While we were there we talked a lot about the Book of Mormon. He got fired up about reading it again and has made it a goal to finish it by the end of the year. The Book of Mormon will seriously change your life as you set time aside each day to read it.

Our stake had a youth talent show this week to kick of Stake Conference. It was awesome. There were tons of non-members there! We got to introduce ourselves to a lot of them. Nothing better than sharing the gospel.

Okay, so during adult stake conference the topic was ward council. In front of everyone the Stake President called Sister Strong and I up to talk about how members and missionaries should communicate with each in ward council. It was quite frightening to say something on the spot. In fact, I think I started quoting Preach My Gospel. At least I didn't pass out!

Okay, last night we had the biggest miracle ever! A member family invited some friends over for dinner and we were able to teach them the Plan of Salvation. It went great. We have a return appointment with them in 2 weeks!

Well, I think that is it. I cannot believe I have been out for 17 months. Time is flying on by. See you all in less than a month...ahhhhhhhhhhh

Sister Morrison

February 23, 2015

Hello friends.

Well, here is some cool news. We had dinner with a family in our ward named the H's. Turns out they lived in the Long Beach 10th ward back in the day and they know Clark and Genie Poston. Apparently, the Poston's gave them a Coleman water jug for a Wedding gift. Whoever talks to the Poston's next tell them the H's said hello. Also, their nephew is serving in Abundancia in Paraguay. The gospel sure is a small small world.

Okay, our investigator A is not really progressing. Sadly, she is not keeping any commitments and wasn't at church yesterday. Tomorrow at our lesson with them we have a sister coming with us who her and her husband just got called to be mission presidents in Mexico. This is one of their assignments to come out with the missionaries. Hopefully, we can a really great lesson teaching the second half of the Plan of Salvation.

Okay, Elder Ballard and Elder Rasband were just awesome! They were only with us for about 1.5 hours, but it was just what I needed. They taught us how to ask for more referrals from people and how to talk to more people about the gospel. Elder Ballard promised us that if we talked to 10 people a day outside of teaching appointments and tracting that our baptisms will double. I have been working extra hard and hopefully we can see some positive results from it soon. He also taught us that whenever he is having a hard moment in life he just pulls out a picture of Christ and looks at it. After looking at it he knows that everything will be okay. I decided to put up a picture of Christ in our car and try to look at it more often. Every time there is a hard moment I look at it. It seriously bring immediate peace. It is incredible. You all should try it. One of my favorite scriptures is 2 Timothy 1:7. "For God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, and of love and of a sound mind." I feel like it applies perfectly!

This week we volunteered at a Senior Center. Most everyone their has dementia. It is so sad, but can be pretty fun sometimes. Sister Strong painted everyone's fingernails and I painted with the old ladies. While painting an old lady rolled up to me and said with what she thought was a whisper voice, but in all reality was a shouting voice... at least you don't have a butt the size of that lady over there. So awkward. The director of place, who the lady was talking about is about 300 pounds. She heard the whole thing. So awkward. Hopefully, you are laughing and feel really bad for me.

We had dinner with a part member family this week. It was great. They invited some non-members. We were able to talk to them all about missionary life and the gospel. It was the best. The part member family invited them to come to the next dinner we have with them. They happily agreed.

The weather here has been so weird. It is actually pouring rain right now. I am all about warmer weather, except for the face that it makes the roads insanely icy. Yesterday, we got a text saying that we could stay inside all day because of road conditions. No way jose were we staying inside on a Sunday. We had way too much to do. I drove with much caution. No need to fear!!!!

Well, last night a member told us a story about when he fought a bear in a cave. Talk about crazy! Remind to tell you about it when I get home.

I love you all! I hope all is well!!!

Love,

Sister Morrison

Exchanges with Sister Ogden

February 17, 2015

Hello Hello.

Big news. M. Russell Ballard, Elder Rasband and Bishop Stevensen are coming to Alaska tomorrow. They are on their way to Asia for some conference and have  a lay over in Anchorage. So.. instead of exploring Alaska for a few hours they want to meet with the missionaries. I am so excited. Hopefully, I can be really edified and really learn a lot from these great men, the lords chosen disciples.

This past week we had dinner with the B's. It was great. It is fun to have some what of a connection with home. We talked all about God's love that he has for each one of his children. There is so much power that comes from teaching that lesson! It was the best.

We were able to teach our investigator A and her husband. We taught them the Restoration. It was great. They both agreed to pray to know Joseph Smith is a prophet of God. That is a big step! They also  both committed to come to church on Sunday, but sadly they went snowmobiling in Valdez instead.

We have continued meeting with the active members in our ward. We have met with just about all of them. They are so nice letting us into their homes to share a message. So, where ever you are, call up the missionaries and invite them to come share a gospel message with you. Trust me... it will be an answer to a lot of missionaries prayers.

We met with Sister D this week. She has gone through a lot in her life, but she strengthened my testimony as she bore testimony of the love that she has for her Savior. The Lord is really there waiting for us to turn to him. He loves us and wants to help us. All we have to do is ask for his help and he will guide us through our lives. Meeting with her reminded me of the poem, "Footprints in the sand". You should all read that when you have a chance.

Valentine's Day is a pretty dumb day as a missionary. Literally no one wants you over which is completely understandable. Sister Strong and I decided to make the best of it. We had a ward potluck after church on Sunday so we decided to make invitations and deliver them to everyone on Saturday. We reminded them and invited them to bring a friend. We also visited all of the old single ladies in the ward. Thankfully, we were able to fill up our day with only one awkward situation. There is a girl in our ward that just got back from her mission. We were dropping off the reminder flyer. She answered the door and she looked a little surprised. She started talking really fast, basically trying to rush us out of her house when all of the sudden there was a knock at the door. It was her date. I feel so bad. We totally crashed the date. Oh well. Something awkward has to happen or it just isn't Valentine's Day.

The ward "Linger Longer" (potluck) was a success. Everyone was able to talk to each other and really get to know each other. That was great since the ward was just created a few weeks ago. No one brought their friends, but a less active came so that was happy!

Yesterday we climbed Mount Baldy. Don't worry. I still have all of my hair. It was a tough hike, but so fun. It was really snowy so going down was quite the adventure. We had to slide down on our behinds and then drag an ice ax behind us to slow us down so that we wouldn't fly off the mountain. It was a crazy awesome adventure. Pictures to come...

Well, I hope all is well. I love you! Remember to share the gospel and use the missionaries in your wards. They.need.your.help. Pray for inspiration to know who is in your path that you could help bring closer to the Savior.

Sister Morrison

On top of Mt. Baldy

Sliding down!