June 23, 2014

Okay, 

This has probably been the best week of mission so far. No lies. Just down right FABULOUS!!!!!! 

Monday night started with Sister Dill and I teaching the K family. We had a goal to follow up with them about them praying for a baptismal date. At the beginning of the lesson A, the mom, told us that she had finished the whole Book of Mormon and knew it was true. She was just in 2 Nephi last week. AMAZING! Well, at the end of the lesson V, the dad, said, "Sisters, apparently I have been Mormon my entire life and I was the only one that didn't know it. I want to be baptized on Saturday!" I just started balling. I was so happy. This family has been so hard to teach I knew that in this moment all of the hard work and prayers and fasting were paying off. The whole family then proceeded to go around the room and say how they wanted to be baptized also.  All I could think about was my family and when my relatives families joined the church. I could not be more happy. This is what missionary work is all about....bringing families together forever and the first step just so happens to be baptism and receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost. All week we encouraged them and planned their baptism. Thursday night they had their baptismal interviews and had font practice. It was so cool to see their excitement!!!! Saturday was the big day! We spent a couple of hours filling the font to make sure it was warm for them. Then, they all arrived, and when I say all... I mean 75 people showed up for this baptism. It was incredible how the ward is reaching out. The family literally looked perfect all in white. We started the program with the Song, "Now let us Rejoice". I was overcome by the spirit. I could literally feel God's love for them! It was amazing. They then went into the font. I am not lying. One the most spiritual experience of my life. Literally not a dry eye in the room. A, the mom, after coming up out of the water said, "What is this feeling, I feel like electricity is running through me. If this was the feeling that you sisters kept telling me about then it made everything worth it." The whole family, A, V, M and M made a covenant with God. Everyone shed tears of joy for the rest of the night. The family realized this incredible blessing in their lives. They all received the Gift of the Holy Ghost and V received the Priesthood this past Sunday. This morning I received a letter from A that made it even more worth it, she has such a beautiful testimony!

This Friday was transfer calls. We got the call about 9:30 P.M. President first asked to talk to Sister Dill. He told her that she would be staying in the Nugget Falls ward. He them told me that I would be training. I about freaked out and died. How in the world is the Lord trusting me to train? This is a big deal. He then said that I was going to be staying in Juneau. I got really confused thinking they were opening a new ward for sisters. He then said that Sister Dill, me, and the little cute greenie would be in a trio. So I am the trainer and Sister Dill is the Junior Comp. I am super happy that I have Sister Dill to stay and help me out. I have no idea who the new sister is going to be, but Sister Dill and I are flying to Anchorage to meet her and pick her up. I will be in Juneau for  the next three months. I'll be here until September. That's 7.5 months in Juneau. I am pretty pumped. 

This week Sister Dill and I did something that only dead people do. We spent some time in a coffin! You read that right. A coffin. I have decided that if I die I would like to be buried. Coffins are pretty comfortable. A member in our ward owns a cemetery and he has an employee that is interested in the gospel, so he took us on tour of the place so that we could get to know her. It was super cool!! 

One night we had a dinner with an elderly couple. The man farted through the whole meal. It was so awkward. I wonder if he could hear it or if he was too deaf to notice. Oh man, all Sister Dill and I could focus on was not laughing. 

We survived the longest day of the year!!! It was still super bright when we went to bed at 10:30!!!! 

I love you all!!! Thank you for your amazing support. Keep teaching and preaching that gospel my friends. Love you love you!!! 

Sister Morrison  

Sister Morrison "dead" in the coffin 

Sister Morrison got to spend some time fishing this week with an elderly couple.

The K family all dressed in their white clothes ready to be baptized!

Sister Morrison got to celebrate the longest day of the year with her favorite person, Sister Dill!

June 16, 2014

Thank you so much for all of the birthday wishes and packages!!! You all are the best. It made the day so much better considering that I was super sick all day. I ran such high fever that I finally had to ask for a blessing at about 8:30 at night. It sucked. I tried to make the best of the day though and still went out and worked. We made dinner for a womens shelter and went tracting. Thankfully, we got a whole nice bunch of people. Someone even offered Sister Dill and I a cup of coffee with some whisky mixed in. I thought that was a perfect offer for someone turning 21 that day. We were able to teach a little bit about the Word of Wisdom and declined the drink. We ate halibut taco salad in a motor home for dinner. Nothing like a red neck birthday right? I am just so grateful for loving family and friends that made my day so special. Thank you so much for everything!!! 

A pretty amazing thing happened this week. There was a state wide girls camp in Alaska and our investigator MK decided to go last minute. We prayed so hard that she would have a wonderful experience there. And guess what... this was the text that her mom sent to Bishop... "Thank you SO, SO much for arranging that trip for M. She is glowing. She has changed in just a week. She has stories of the power of prayer and she was interviewed by a "worldwide Mormon magazine reporter." She is flying high, S, and I am so grateful for you. Before you came to us, this was my prayer- that she would truly know God and His spirit and His word. She says she learned so much and made so many new friends (my social butterfly!) and she loved all of the leaders and she said everyone was talking about her baptism date, etc., etc. She is talking 90mph, but she had a wonderful time. Thank you for all you did to make this possible for her." Looks like our prayers were answered. Bishop read this in ward council and I just started balling. Nothing is better than seeing your investigators come closer to Christ. During Sunday school yesterday A lead over to me and said, "We need to get M baptized. And heck.. I am wearing half white right now. Should we just go and fill up the font?" What investigator says that!? Miracle. We are meeting with them tonight and hope to set a baptismal date with their family :) 

Here is another miracle. A member went home teaching to a less active families house. Turns out they have a 9 year old girl K who wants to be baptized. This week we taught her the first two lessons! She is getting baptized. She is going to tell us what date she picked on Thursday at our next lesson. We invited her and her mom to church. Guess what?!! They came and stayed all three hours. It is amazing what a kid can do to get their parents to church. Half way through Relief Society the mom leaned over to me and said, "At the next lesson with K if it is okay, my fiance is going to sit in and start learning about the church. WOOOHOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!! Another new investigator coming our way. Home teaching works. Miracles can and will happen if you do it! 

Things are going good. We picked up another investigator this week. A lady in our ward was just diagnosed with breast cancer. He husband is not a member, but wanted to start learning more about the church in case she passed away. We started teaching him about God's love. The spirit was just so strong. He was crying through the whole lesson talking all about how he knows this experience is bringing him closer to Christ. It is amazing seeing how sometimes trials bring people closer to Christ. 

Funny story!: We go and visit an elderly lady that cannot leave her house. We were reading the Book of Mormon with her. About 10 verses in she dropped the Book of Mormon and she whole body jerked.Guess we are real boring missionaries. Looks like we need to liven up the lessons a little bit so she wont fall asleep :)

Miracles are happening. This week we had 10 member referrals. Transfer calls are this Friday the 20th. Fun fact of the day. I got my mission call a year ago to that day and I was baptized on that day. I totally hope Sister Dill and I stay in Juneau another transfer! We will see what happens. 

love you lots

Sister Morrison 

Celebrating her birthday with Elder Tai

 The Elders decorated her car to celebrate Sister Morrison's 21st birthday!

Sister Morrison and Sister Dill

Finally finished the puzzle she had been working on. 

Sister Morrison, Dill, and with the mission president and his wife.

Sister Morrison with one of her returning less actives, and her dog Z

June 9, 2014

Hello hello :)

Let me just start off by quoting a book, "Brown bear, brown bear, what do you see?" I see a missionary looking at me. That is right folks I saw a bear with her two cubs and another bear randomly running through a neighborhood. It was the coolest thing ever! One was right outside of the relief society room window and in the middle of zone conference someone said, "hey look!" Well, you all probably know how that went over. We totally took a 10 minute break to look and take pics of the bear. It was the best.

This week all of the missionaries in South East, AK came to Juneau for Zone Conference. I am pretty sure from what I have heard that zone conferences in Juneau are different than anypart of the world. It was three days long. We had about 14 hours of meetings and the rest was out hiking. Well, learning about the gospel while hiking and applying it to missionary work of course. It was so much fun. One night the zone leaders were supposed to pick an hour long hike, but I think we may have accidentley taken the long way , beacuse we ended up hiking for like 5 hours. We literally hiked until 1130 at night! We did see a humpback whale in the water that night so that was pretty cool! I loved zone conference. You always learn so much. This conference was really focused on tracting. Looks like Sister Dill and I are going to be doing a lot more. It is always awesome to be spiritually uplifted by your mission president along with all of the missionaries.

Sadly, this week I have been so sick. I have been sneezing non stop, my nose produced just about every color of snot possible, my eyeballs turned red due to the fact that they were extremely itchy, my whole face even swelled up and I felt like I was about to pass out just about all day long, but I couldn't miss out on the fun. Yesterday, the sickness just got to me and I had to take an hour nap.

On the bright side we had a wonderful week with the work! We were able to teach the K family about the gospel of Jesus Christ. They are praying for a baptismal date! We are so excited! We were able to pick up a new investigator who is 12 and should be getting baptized at the end of the summer! Her family is active, but they just never got her baptized. We were able to meet with the B's again this week! Turns out the dad has a long lost sister he didn't know about that he was able to reconnect with this past week. Turns out she joined the church and just got back from a mission in New Zealand. Hopefully, he will have the desire to be baptized soon!! wooohooo!!!! Miracles left and right appeared! The ward is still of fire. This week we got nine member referrals!!! At church on Sunday we had 6 investigators show up. It is just so happy here !

Thank you for all of the birthday packages and letters from some of you! I can't wait to open them tomorrow! I hope all is well and I can't wait to hear from you all next week :)

Bring Miracles to peoples lives by sharing the gospel!

The brown bear that Sister Morrison was so happy to finally see!

 Zone Conference hike that ended a little later than anticipated.

 Sister Morrison, Honey, Dill, and Harrison during Zone Conference

Sister Morrison and Honey at the Mendenhall Glacier

June 2, 2014

Howdy from Juneau! Today I hit my 8 month mark!!!! It blows my mind I have been out for this long. Just think, next month I'll be half way done!!!!

Well this week was pretty great!!!! Here are some miracles that have been happening here in the Nugget Falls ward.

We were able to finally meet with the K family. They had some struggles, but said that they know that the church is true. I can't tell you how amazing it is to teach a family. It is just incredible!!!!!!! We taught them about the Plan of Salvation. They think that nothing is better than the fact that we believe that families can be together forever. They also love the idea of eternal progression. It's just the best. We invited them to be baptized and they said YES!!!!!, but they want to take all of the lessons before they pick a date. I know they will be baptized soon. Like 5 times during the lesson they kept saying, "Does our church believe this or that?" Guys;... they all ready count themselves members of the church. We are teaching them again this Friday. We are just so excited!

R and C are also progressing towards baptism. This week we were meeting with R and we asked her to be baptized. She said, "Well, I've all ready been baptized." We explained to her that the priestood power is necessary to be baptized. We are going to really work with her this week trying to help her understand the Restoration. On Friday night we meet with her again and asked her if she had prayed about the things which we were teaching her were true. She said. I all ready know they are. It's the weirdest thing. Everytime you teach me something new I feel the Holy Ghost so strong and I feel like I have learned it before. Their family is so Golden! It's the best! They even came to a kids baptism this week, so they could see what it is like to be baptized.

After working with our investigators A and B for months we were finally able to figure out why they were not progressing. They don't know God loves them or if he really exists. It was an amazing and power lesson figuring out their concerns. We were able to then teach them again about God's love and prayer. The spirit was so strong. It is interesting to see how some people progress super fast in the gospel and some people take years. After two years of meeting with missionaries they are finally strating to make some progress. I can tell God is really trying to help them progress in the gospel!

Sister Dill and I decided to really try and focus on our faith. This week we were able to pick up three new investigators!! Wooohoooo. All of the lessons were just the first get to know you lessons, but I will have more updates about them next week. The work is taking off and we are excited. The Bishop got up in ward council and talked about how Sister Dill and I are great teachers and that people need to take advantage of us. That was pretty cool!!! Members are responding to that councel  like wild fire! They all want someone taught in their home. I am grateful for the work.

Sister Dill and I have been hiiting the pavement a ton this week. Tracting, tracting, and tracting. To be honest I hate it, but I try and do it with a happy heart. We haven't had much success, but we were able to give away a Book of Mormon, so that was exciting.

I have decided that bears hate Sister Missionaries and they try and avoid us like the black plauge. Like 5 members this week have called us during the day to come and see the bear in their front yard and everytime we show up at their house the bear had just left. The closest thing I had to seeing a bear this week was shoveling so bear poop. So lame.

Our recent convert L had her baby this week. The baby is just perfect. It took just about everything in me not to hold that baby. Dumb missionary rules. I know all of the rules are their for a reason. That one one just really tested my desire to be obedient! haha

This week is Zone Conference. I am pretty excited! Sitka sisters just came in last night. It should be a fun week with all of our zone!!!!

I found this quote this morning in my studies by Jospeh Smith. It says, "After all that has been said, the greatest and most important duty is to preach the gospel". That is right folks. Share the gospel with someone this week. I know it will bless your lives!!!!!

Love you all!

Sister Morrison

 Sister Morrison picking up some of the bear poop.

One of Sister Morrison's new coverts just had her baby!

Sister Morrison's favorite activity, planning lessons!